
Glass H-LLLl. 

Book uHii 

Gopight]^" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 



MEXICO 



WITH 



COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 



By a. a. graham, 

Attorney at Law, 

Topeka, Kansas. 



FIRST EDITION. 



CRANE & COMPANY, 

Topeka, Kansas. 

A. D. 1907. 



&1 



UBRARV'ofCONeKESS 
Two Copies Rsceivea 

DEC 23 1907 

C»k)yri«nt tntry 
'copy b,/ 



Copyright 1907, by A. A. Graham, 

Topeka, Kansas. 




PEEFACE. 

The preface of a book, like the plan of a battle or a 
building, should be carefully prepared by the author 
and examined by the reader before entering into the 
work; but only generals and architects do this; and 
the soldier and the laborer do not know to what end 
their efforts are bent, until the battle is over or the 
building completed, when they are both in a position 
to criticise most severely. 

I have not written a Guidebook, an Itinerary, nor 
yet a Memoir; and my object is, necessarily, but 
vaguely stated in the title, Mexico with Comparisons 
and Conclusions. What features respecting Mexico, 
what Comparisons, what Conclusions? 

Mexico, physically, least; industrially, less; com- 
mercially, little; religiously, much; politically, more; 
socially, most, is the scale of importance on which I 
have placed the various phases of the country and the 
nation, thus giving the chief place to that which is 
most unstable in the life of men, but is the starting- 
point of all. 

The Comparisons are drawn mainly from the United 
States; but, also, include the world at large, having 
special reference to the condition under consideration 
in Mexico. 

[3] 



PREFACE. 



The Conclusions are such as I have thought legiti- 
mate and justifiable, and are my own. Some of them 
may fall hard upon interest and faction, but I have no 
apologies to make. 

By this method, I give the reader a view of some 
particular phase of Mexico, proceeding by subjects, 
then calHng his attention to the like condition in the 
United States or other countries; and, using these 
as premises, I have deduced my conclusions. 

I do not know of any work, the result of travel, or 
study merely, or otherwise, constructed on this plan; 
and, until I learn differently, will claim originality. 

The great regret I have to express is, that this plan 
has put the proper performance of the work far beyond 
my capacity; but, having conceived it, and being 
willing, I did my best. 



COlS'TElSrTS. 



Preface, 3 

Introductory, 7 

Chapter I, Descriptive, . . . . . . 9 

Chapter II, Industrial, 42 

Chapter III, Commercial, 64 

Chapter IV, Religious, 98 

Chapter V, Political, 138 

Chapter VI, Social, 193 



[5] 



INTEODUOTOET. 

Have you read the Preface? 
No! 

Well, then, read it; because I do not want you to 
finish the book before you find out what it is about. 

During the latter part of January, 1907, 1 left Topeka, 
Kansas, U. S. A., for Mexico, and remained in that 
country for about two months, returning to Topeka 
during the latter part of March. This was a business 
trip, which occupied my time, except while travehng 
or waiting between engagements, so that I had Httle 
time for investigation and reflection, but what I had 
I employed with a vengeance, in pursuance of rather 
a vague desire of seeing the things of which I had heard 
and read so much than for the purpose of making a 
collection of facts and record of impressions, which I 
did not do. I hurried over everything with hasty 
glances, securing mental images, which I found taking 
definite form in my mind, after I had returned to the 
United States, and reflected upon my trip. I imagine 
the results I have attained in this respect are compa- 
rable with the work of a photographer, who, in an 
outing, takes many instantaneous views with his 
camera, to be developed at leisure in his studio. Con- 
versations, on my return, assisted in the development 
of my impressions, and the idea of reducing them to 
writing was the result of these conversations. 

The repetitions, which will be noticed, are due to 

[7] 



8 INTRODUCTORY. 



the method of proceeding by subjects, and could not 
well be avoided, as the same fact has often had various 
applications; but, if specially considered with refer- 
ence to the subject, at the time, in hand, they may not, 
I hope, prove too painful to the reader. 



MEXICO. 



CHAPTER I. 
DESCRIPTIVE. 

Mejico, Megico, Mexico, thus variously spelled and 
variously pronounced. 

Open your geography at a map of the Western 
Hemisphere, glancing up and down and from side to 
side for a few moments. 

I will now recount briefly what you have noticed, 
only as a basis for my statements : Ocean on the west, 
gulf and sea on the east, a river and the mouth of a 
river on the north, an isthmus on the south. These 
and mountains are the natural boundaries of states 
and the limits of empire. A non-navigable river, like 
the Rio Grande, is frequently the dividing line between 
nations, but not so with the navigable; the nation 
that occupies the headwaters or upper valley of a 
river, whether navigable or not, usually acquires juris- 
diction of its mouth, as has been nearly the case with 
the Colorado ; an angle in the general course of a river 
frequently describes an angle of empire also, as illus- 
trated by the Rio Grande. 

The southern' boundary as given, you will notice, is 
geographically incorrect; but political waves, like 
those of ocean, sometimes break their bounds. The 

[9] 



10 MEXICO, 



isthmus of Tehuantepec is the natural, and, there- 
fore, should be the political, boundary of Mexico on 
the south. The wave that has broken over, like that 
of typhoon or earthquake, must as surely recede. 
The metaphorical ocean of humanity, like its material 
prototype, has its flows, its ebbs, its calms, and above 
all, its longer periods not known by any of these names, 
when the silent work of change is progressing un- 
noticed ; then the coral reef rises, shores are dissolved ; 
and, in the moral world, opinions grow or decay. 
Happy is the nation that does not seek to break its 
bounds; fortunate the people who stay at home! 

Having thus briefly encompassed my subject, I 
will proceed to an examination of its features; and, 
in a word, let me tell you in the beginning, the face, 
or, more accurately speaking, the surface of Mexico, 
aside from a strip of coastline on the east, is all moun- 
tain and plateau. Mountains, mountains, mountains, 
everywhere, plateaus between, not valleys, because 
the mountains are broken into peaks, rising from the 
plateaus, level up to their very foot. 

The mountains of the north two-thirds of the coun- 
try are composed of stratified rocks, while those of 
the south are mainly volcanic. I suspect that those 
of the north were formed by the sinking of the plateaus, 
while those of the south are of volcanic origin, as they 
are, indeed, mountains of lava. I suspect, too, that 
all this occurred, both north and south, when this 
part of the continent was at the bottom of the ocean, 
else why the clear-cut distinction between the moun- 
tains and the plains? Why no foothills? This is a 
question for the geologist, but I may be pardoned for 
giving these impressions. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 11 



I think, also, that the valleys of the Rio Grande and 
the Colorado mark the northern boundary of the moun- 
tain formation of North America resulting from the 
sinking of the plateaus or valleys, and that these river 
valleys are, likewise, the southern boundary of our 
great western ranges, clearly the product of upheavals 
of the earth's crust, between which, in the Great Basin, 
the mountains are of the same formation as those 
south of the Colorado and the Rio Grande; but, if 
we assume — ^which is the geological fact — that the 
valley of the Colorado was the result of the erosion of 
the waters of that river, after the period of volcanic 
activity, then we have sufficient data from which to 
conclude that that part of North America lying from 
about the tropic of Cancer on the south, extending 
in a northwesterly direction to the valley of the Colum- 
bia on the north, in the period of its mountain forma- 
tion, comprised a single and continuous area, subject 
to the same influences or forces, and, hence, issuing 
in a uniform result. 

This theory seems to gather force, when we reflect, 
that, from a material and mechanical standpoint, on 
the surface of a globe, which can have only a uniform 
amount of area, if one portion of the surface is ele- 
vated, a corresponding depression will also occur, and 
vice versa, as any child may illustrate in the manipu- 
lation of a rubber ball. 

Only one question remains: Why did not all this 
extent of surface sink uniformly? And this is easily 
answered: Because the upheavals did not occur uni- 
formly, nor at the same time. The upheaval of a 
given portion of the earth's crust caused the sinking 
of a like area beside it ; the sinking, soHd portion em- 



12 MEXICO. 



bedding itself in the plastic portion beneath, made a 
prop or support for the surrounding crust. Now, 
when an upheaval occurred at another place close by, 
another portion of the crust would be depressed, thus 
forming a prop or support for the other side of the 
undepressed crust, which, in this manner, has become 
a mountain, a veritable keystone of an arch. 

The theory, with which I started, I think, has now 
become a proposition; and it also explains why the 
earth's crust is thinnest at the base of a mountain or 
the shore of the ocean, as I will thus illustrate: 

Take three books, placing them in a line end to end 
to represent the earth's crust; the book on the right, 
call the Atlantic ; the one on the left, the Pacific ; the 
one in the center, the Western Continent ; and imagine 
an inch of water on top. We are now ready for the 
beginning of geological times. Elevate the center 
book two inches; the inch of water runs off; and, if 
we had no other element to consider, the center book, 
representing the Western Continent, would stand one- 
half an inch above sea-level, if no corresponding dis- 
placements have occurred in the Atlantic and the 
Pacific, as the continent rose between; but, as the 
general level of the entire ocean must now adjust it- 
self to the new condition, we have a differential ele- 
ment in the calculation, with which, however, we need 
not deal, as it does not change the gross result. 

Now, measure the distance from the top of the books, 
representing the Atlantic and the Pacific, to the bot- 
tom of the one representing the continent, and you 
will ascertain by what amount the earth's crust is 
thinner at the point of junction on either side. 

In the same manner, we may use three books to 



DESCRIPTIVE. 13 



illustrate the formation of mountains, arising from 
continents as the continents arose from the ocean: 
call the center book the mountain area, and the right 
and the left, the plains on either side. Elevate the 
center book, and we have an illustration of the forma- 
tion of a mountain by upheaval; but, if we depress 
the books on the right and the left, we have an illus- 
tration of the formation of a mountain by the sinking 
of the plains, with the center book representing the 
mountain, wedged like a keystone in the arch thus 
formed, as before stated. 

Beyond the extent covered by my description, I 
am not familiar with the vertebral column of the 
American Continent; but how much its back was 
bent, strained and broken in the activities of its youth, 
how many aches and pains it suffered in its prime, and 
how helpless it has become in its old age, we may still 
gather from the fragments of its geological pages, now 
scattered, torn, and wasting away. 

Volcanic activity was the fire of its life, now ex- 
tinguished and cold in death, dissolution and decay, 
from which, transformation. 

In all ages, the similar and the similitude in Earth 
and Man have engaged the minds of the thoughtful 
in the construction of hypotheses, and the feeUngs of 
the frivolous in the building of hopes. 

To complete the sketch, I should say that the Ap- 
palachian range, with which I am somewhat famiUar, 
is physically disconnected from, and chronologically 
disassociated with, the ranges of Mexico and those of 
western United States, British Columbia and Alaska, 
in that the Appalachians formed the crest of but a 
comparatively small island, and had been well worn 



14 MEXICO, 



away before the backbone of the continent began to 
differentiate, when all that most fruitful valley now 
between was the bed of the ocean. Then the Gulf 
Stream surely flowed north along the present course 
of the Mississippi, deflecting eastward along the pres- 
ent course of the chain of great lakes and the St. 
Lawrence, and, its current spreading, deposited its 
sediment, thus forming the lowlands of Labrador, in 
like manner as the Banks of Newfoundland have since 
been formed by the same Gulf Stream, flowing in nearly 
the same general direction, but on the other side of 
the Appalachian range, which, in the same facetious 
analogy, as made us call the Rockies the backbone, we 
might designate the breastbone of the continent. 

In this progression of events, time is scarcely an 
element; but, if admitted at all, years must be ex- 
cluded as the unit, and we must substitute ages and 
periods only as a help to our minds in an endeavor to 
grasp immensity. 

In this view, the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence 
are but channels, which have not yet drained to the 
great body of the ocean that part imprisoned in the 
center of our continent by the rising of the shores. 

The geology of the Appalachians, hke the history of 
the civihzation of the ancient Mexicans, is lost in the 
ravages of time; but, I hope, in neither case, beyond 
recovery. 

The mountains of Mexico are recent, and, indeed, 
new, while those of the Appalachian range in the United 
States and their extension into Canada, are the oldest 
in the world, the oldest land above water, and, there- 
fore, should be, at least geologically, called the Old 
World. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 15 



Those who have seen only time-worn and rounded 
knobs and swelling and timbered ranges have yet 
much to add to their idea of mountain: lofty, pre- 
cipitous, imminent, rugged, inaccessible, sublime, terri- 
ble, are, to them, words only with a dictionary mean- 
ing. 

The broken face of nature presented by these Mexi- 
can mountains might lead one to imagine that here 
was fought the battle between the Giants and the 
Titans, which once (in fable) decided the fate of the 
world, when mountains were tossed as missiles and the 
solid earth set on fire. 

No fabulous exploit was ever too extravagant for 
the emulation of man, and our graduating theses are 
likely to be laid along these lines ; but we eventually 
reahze that, instead of moving mountains, we cast, 
like children playing in the sands, but a small cloud of 
dust, and that, instead of setting the world on fire, we 
warm but a very small spot on this earth. 

Have these mountains gold? No, not much. Sil- 
ver? Yes, some. Lead? A little. Copper? Yes, 
in the northwestern portion of the country. Coal? 
Practically none, and what is, of poor quahty. Other 
minerals? I answer this by saying that, except in a 
few noted instances, the country is poor in minerals, 
but rich in prospects, and is overrun by promoters 
and schemers, looking for good things in which to in- 
duce their friends to invest money. 

Are these mountains covered with timber? No, 
only brush and scrub, where not barren. Only a very 
small amount of timber in Mexico, which is being cut 
rapidly, and this means that in a few years the coun- 
try will be entirely depleted, so that the people have 



16 MEXICO. 



always gotten along with very little timber, a recent 
experience to a great portion of the world besides, 
and a lesson which the people of the United States 
cannot take to heart too soon. 

Building-stone? No; these rocks are not fit for 
permanent structures, and houses built of them must 
be kept plastered both outside and inside to preserve 
the walls. I saw but one granite building, of stones 
of small dimensions, and heard of granite at but one 
place. 

Solidified volcanic mud, called by a name as if pro- 
nounced tipytaty, is used to a small extent for build 
ing ; but the great material for housebuilding is " doby," 
sun-baked bricks moulded, or rather cut, from a black, 
consistent surface mud. 

Burned bricks, on account of scarcity of fuel, are 
not made. 

With the statement that the mountains, as one pro- 
ceeds south, generally become less and more numer- 
ous, I dismiss this part of my description for the pla- 
teaus, concerning which I need only add that, until 
one gets well within the tropics, they are mostly bar- 
ren, or nearly so, producing, at best, only a thin growth 
of native grasses, cacti, thorns, etc. 

The soil ordinarily is only a few inches in thickness, 
and underneath is a stratum of calcareous formation, 
impervious to water, and of greatly varying thickness, 
from a few inches to many feet, and below this is a 
stratum of sand of some solidity, but can only geo- 
logically be called rock, which I judge is impervious 
to water also, and varies from a few inches to hundreds 
of feet at one place, as I observed, where it cropped 
out on the side of a mountain. I have wondered if 



DESCRIPTIVE. 17 



this sand stratum is the homologue of the "old red/' 
perhaps too much written about by Hugh Miller. 

Water is scarce, except in the rainy season, when 
everything is flooded. I forded the largest river in 
the country during the dry season, or winter, and it 
was not knee-deep. 

I should not, however, close this rambhng account 
of what may be seen on the surface in Mexico, with- 
out mentioning the only active volcano, Colima, on 
the west coast, and the two extinct ones to be seen 
from the City of Mexico, but which nobody, not even 
those Hving in the city, call by name. 

I have read in ancient poetry about certain gods of 
awful name; and these extinct volcanoes seem to be 
in the same category. Perhaps I might find a reason of 
my own for their peculiar and unpronounceable names, 
and will, therefore, try my hand at mythological fancy. 
I will call the one mountain Alta (high) and the other 
Altilla, his wife, which we will call feminine of Alta, 
and imagine them gods. 

Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl, first called Alta and 
Altilla, were gods, and joined in matrimonial bands. 
Having, what could not now happen in that bHssful 
state, a difference of opinion, they began a heated 
discussion, gurghng with such hideous roarings as to 
drown the voice of Mars, who can bellow louder than 
ten thousand bulls, emitting also more fire than hght- 
ning at Jove's command, and raising more smoke than 
Hell, so that these gods, jealous at being outdone, 
summoned Night to cast Darkness around Alta and 
Altilla, and place white caps on their heads, Ether to 
touch their eyelids, and Somnus to bind them in chains 
of Slumber, condemning them to that state forever. 



18 MEXICO. 



and changing their designations to the unspeakable 
appellations they now bear, so that no one thence- 
forth could speak their names, which has proved such 
a salutary warning to all gods and men, that no like 
dispute has ever since arisen, and has ushered in the 
reign of Connubial Bliss, who has since held undis- 
puted sovereignty over the conjugal tie. 

This fable might be entitled How Strife Ceased 
AND Peace Began, and might be of such general appli- 
cation that I will ask The Hague papers to please copy ; 
and, in addition to its furnishing a diplomatic sugges- 
tion, might not be altogether unsuited for domestic 
advice also. 

For the benefit of our many poets, the following 
version is given : 

POPOCATAPETL AND IZTACCIHUATL. 

These names, too awful for the scale of rhyme, 
Are lost eternal to the voice of Time ; 
Though Alta and Altilla were their boast, 
When they, as gods, adorned the heavenly host. 
In matrimonial bands, by nature joined, 
To peace and quiet were their days confined; 
But Disputation, by Opinion sent, 
Unbridled Temper, and Confusion lent. 
In gurglings loud, the voice of Mars they quell, 
And, breathing smoke, defy the powers of Hell; 
Emitting fire, the bolts of Jove conceal. 
And stand unrivaled in the commonweal. 
Jove, Mars and Hell, on deep resentment bent, 
To sable Night a hasty summons sent. 
With Darkness to encompass them around, 
And chains of Slumber bind them to the ground. 
Such awful warnings have the gods assigned 
To gods immortal and to human kind, 
That disputations shall forever cease. 
And bliss connubial evermore increase. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 19 



Having just given a poetical version of a mythologi- 
cal fable, my mind is forcibly called to the custom, 
having all the force of error, if not misrepresentation 
even, indulged by too many writers, when handling 
a great subject, where the sense of judgment seems to 
be overpowered by the force of imagination inspired 
by outward sublimity or inward feeling, when poetic 
fancy takes the place of practical thoughts, elevating 
the mind to the skies, instead of keeping the body 
dragging hard upon the earth. 

I know that no such contagion will spring from my 
attempt, but I am not so sure about the work of an- 
other to be just now noticed. 

I have a supreme admiration of Prescott as a his- 
torian and as a man, and this emboldens me to call 
attention to the error in which he unfortunately fell 
in giving way to the inspirations of poetic fancy in 
entering upon his ''Conquest of Mexico." After giv- 
ing the general physical features of the country, he 
proceeds : 

After passing some twenty leagues across this burn- 
ing region [the tierra caliente or hot country of the 
Gulf coast], the traveler finds himself rising into a 
purer atmosphere. His limbs recover their elasticity. 
He breathes more freely, for his senses are not now 
oppressed by the sultry heats and intoxicating per- 
fumes of the valley. The aspect of nature, too, has 
changed, and his eye no longer revels among the gay 
variety of colors with which the landscape was painted 
there. The vanilla, the indigo, and the flowering cacao- 
groves disappear as he advances. The sugar-cane 
and the glossy-leaved banana still accompany him; 
and, when he has ascended about four thousand feet, 
he sees in the unchanging verdure, and the rich foliage 
of the liquid- amber tree, that he has reached the height 



20 MEXICO. 



where clouds and mists settle, in their passage from 
the Mexican Gulf. This is the region of perpetual 
humidity; but he welcomes it with pleasure, as an- 
nouncing his escape from the influence of the deadly 
vomito. He has entered the tierra templada, or tem- 
perate region, whose character resembles that of the 
temperate zone of the globe. The features of the 
scenery become grand, and even terrible. His road 
sweeps around the base of lofty mountains, once 
gleaming with volcanic fires, and still resplendent in 
their mantles of snow, which serve as beacons to the 
mariner, for many a league at sea. All around he 
beholds traces of their ancient combustion, as his road 
passes along vast tracts of lava, bristling in the in- 
numerable fantastic forms into which the fiery torrent 
has been thrown by the obstacles in its career. Per- 
haps, at the same moment, as he casts his eye down 
some steep slope, or almost unfathomable ravine, on 
the margin of the road, he sees their depths glowing 
with the rich blossoms and enameled vegetation of 
the tropics. Such are the singular contrasts presented, 
at the same time, in this picturesque region! 

Still passing upward, the traveler mounts into other 
climates, favorable to other kinds of cultivation. The 
yellow maize, or Indian corn, as we usually call it, 
has continued to follow him up from the lowest level ; 
but he now first sees fields of wheat, and the other 
European grains, brought into the country by the 
Conquerors. Mingled with them, he views the plan- 
tations of the aloe or maguey (agave Americana), 
applied to such varied and important uses by the Az- 
tecs. The oaks now acquire a sturdier growth, and 
the dark forests of pine announce that he has entered 
the tierra fria, or cold region, the third and last of the 
great natural terraces into which the country is di- 
vided. 

This only lacks reality to make it real; and I am 
glad I am not the first to observe the error. The 



DESCRIPTIVE, 21 



quotation is long, but I give the complete picture, as 
imaginative, poetic and great as the mind which con- 
ceived it, and as beautiful as the most sublime de- 
scriptive passages in Homer, where it can justly find 
a comparison; but, in these ecstacies of imagination, 
what becomes of the fact? 

Sometimes authors, of dull imagination, feeling a 
pressure from without instead of from within, intro- 
duce their works with a poetic quotation, to serve as 
a sort of keynote, to give pitch or elevation to their 
song; and sometimes, afeo, authors of great abihties, 
Uke Prescott, in the burst of enthusiasm, when enter- 
ing upon their subject, weave the thread of their oWn 
poetic fancy into the narrative. 

Had Prescott written an introduction to his ''Con- 
quest," and there dehvered himself, in a tentative 
manner, of his poetic fancies, he would have done 
better than himself, because no other could do better 
than he has so nobly done. 

Lack of capacity or attainment, producing envy, is 
the most fruitful source of criticism ; and, under other 
circumstances, I would be praising instead of cen- 
suring; but my purpose, notwithstanding, is, to give 
more of fact and less of fancy than has heretofore 
ordinarily been done about Mexico. 

The desert has ever been the land of enchantment; 
Arabia, Lybia, Mexico, are almost synonyms for poetry, 
oracle, and rehgion ; and, while we are pleased to give 
our fancy wing, yet we should never forget that only 
thin air sustains its flight, with a very soHd earth be- 
neath. 

The plains or plateaus of Mexico, though often ap- 
parently barren, have a small amount of grass, which 



22 MEXICO. 



will support a limited number of animals; sometimes, 
in small areas, they are covered with a good growth 
of grass more than a foot in height ; but, most generally, 
buffalo-grass prevails, which grows only a few inches 
tall. On the assumption that all parts of the earth 
should be put to their appropriate use, these plains 
could be given to pasturage, which is done; and, on 
account of the lack of any possible supply of water in 
most places for irrigation, they never can be put to 
any other use. 

In the Rocky Mountain district of the United States, 
the Great Basin to the west, and a border of 200 or 
300 miles to the east, we find a scope of country much 
like Mexico, where agriculture, without irrigation, is 
mostly a failure. 

Notwithstanding, however, the great craze for land 
of the last few years has been the cause of the settling 
up of a large portion of this district. "Plow up the 
ground," say the land agents, "and the rains will fol- 
low," but the government records, kept for twenty 
or thirty years, show no increase in the mean annual 
rainfall in that region. 

What actually does happen is, that, prior to the 
breaking up of the virgin soil, where creation left it 
solidly packed, rain quickly drained off; but, when 
the soil has been loosened by cultivation, it soaks in 
and stays. Thus the same amount of rain does an 
increased amount of good, and utihty is mistaken for 
quantity. 

I have seen people breaking up and turning under 
the native grass in a disintegrated granite soil, which 
swallows water more readily than a bed of sand, and 
this, too, where the mean annual rainfall, as deter- 



DESCRIPTIVE. 23 



mined by Government register, is only about nine 
inches. 

These poor, unfortunate people had been enticed 
there by the avidity of the railroads, for revenue, and 
the land agents, for commissions; the railroads and 
the land agents join in the perfidy of false advertise- 
ments, which I have seen displaying pictures of stately 
trees, fruitful orchards, waving grain and flowering 
meads, and even broad rivers, bearing the barks of 
commerce, have been shown, where, in truth, deso- 
lation reigns supreme. 

Manifestly not yet have all the crimes of greed found 
a name or a punishment. 

These semi-barren plains should never be broken up ; 
the native grasses should be preserved for pasture, 
because, when once killed out, they will never again 
reclaim the ground; and, what is now a source of in- 
come, though small, will, by attempted cultivation, 
become a barren waste. 

Passing now to minerals and mines, I made inquiry 
about the mines of Zacatecas, visiting some and see- 
ing others from a distance, as I climbed to the top of a 
high mountain near the city, where I could get a view 
of the whole country; and could learn of only two 
working, with results unknown, while all the others 
were merely prospects, or were either standing idle, 
or had been entirely abandoned, some very many 
years ago. 

From the top of this mountain, I saw another of a 
red-brown color close by, entirely bare of all vege- 
tation, which I supposed to be due to copper, making 
it a copper mountain, in fact, but with only enough 
to give color to itself and its prospect-holes. 



24 MEXICO. 



I also explored an outcropping of what I took to 
be a silver-bearing stratum twenty to thirty feet in 
thickness, but the grade was very low. 

Such things as these furnish food for fancy and 
sources of speculation. 

"The inexhaustible mineral wealth" of Mexico has 
been profoundly modified in the minds of many an 
American and European speculator; but, so long as 
this idea prevails, tinctured with all the delusions of 
tradition, nothing short of a severe shock is sufficient 
to change the mental impression of the existence of 
mines with veins of solid silver three feet thick. I see 
in a book of some respectability, that the mines of 
Zacatecas have produced, from their discovery to the 
present time, $10,000,000,000 of silver. Everyone 
will recognize the utter falsity of this claim, upon the 
mere statement. 

Authors, guilty of such gross exaggerations, should 
not be excused by admirers of fact; but we are not 
obliged to stand on our own conclusions; because, 
at another place in his book, the same author gives 
the total output of all Mexico to the present time as 
$4,000,000,000; and I will do him the justice to quote 
both from his book : 

Mines and Mining. — This subject may be treated 
in one word, silver. It is everywhere, in every state, 
in every hill and mountain. It is probable that the 
total production of silver in Mexico, since the opening 
of the mines to date, would reach $4,000,000,000. 
[This is on page 14 of his book.] 

Silver was discovered in 1546 by Juan de Tolosa, 
and so rich were the mines that the place became a 
city in 1585 by decree of PhilipJ II, and from 1548 
to 1810, the product of the mines was nearly $10,000,- 



DESCRIPTIVE. 25 



000,000; since that time the output has not been so 
great. [The place referred to is Zacatecas, on page 
266 of the same book.] 

At no age of the world has man ever been frank or 
truthful respecting mines of the precious metals; and 
the above quotations show that this author is not even 
consistent. 

Whatever other charge may be brought against me 
for what I have said on any subject respecting Mexico, 
I want to say in advance, that I have not tried to mis- 
lead. My facts, I own, are often uncertain; but I 
give them as I got them, relying on the good sense of 
my reader, after knowing their source, to judge for 
himself; and rumor, sometimes, suits me better than 
fact, because my chief object respects the religious, 
moral, poHtical and social conditions of the people. 

One has as many accounts of Mexico as he has au- 
thors, in illustration of which, I quote below what is 
said respecting iron by two well-known authors, both 
bearing the reputation of authenticity : 

The use of iron, with which the soil was impreg- 
nated, was unknown to them [the aborigines]. Not- 
withstanding its abundance, etc. 

There is little iron, except at Durango, where there 
is a mountain of it that is from seventy-five to ninety 
per cent of pure metal. [Durango is beyond the bor- 
ders of Anahuac, and could not have been in the mind 
of the first author quoted.] 

And I quote the same authors respecting gold: 

Gold, found on the surface, or gleaned from the 
beds of rivers, was cast into bars, or, in the form of 
dust, made part of the regular tribute of the southern 
provinces of the empire [the empire of the Mexicans]. 

Gold exists in small quantities. 



26 MEXICO. 



I might extend the Ust, but think this should suffice 
to show the condition of the literature on the subject. 

I see, by a table giving the assessed valuation, by- 
states, of all the property in the country, that the 
grand total is $409,318,296, or equal to considerably 
less than half the profits of the Standard Oil Company 
for ten years last past, as recently made pubhc; so 
that that company, by applying its profits for the pur- 
pose for less than five years, might buy the entire 
Republic of Mexico. 

Compare these figures, $409,318,296, the assessed 
valuation of all the property in the entire country, 
with the $4,000,000,000, given as the value of the sil- 
ver produced from the discovery to the present time, 
and you see a relation of about 1 to 10, so that you 
must conclude that the people have squandered ten 
times the value of their country; and, if you take the 
figures of $10,000,000,000, as representing the value 
of the output of the silver mines of Zacatecas alone, 
you see the relation is as 1 to 25, not including the 
remainder of the output, all of which would make the 
proportion as 1 to 35. 

Between two falsehoods, discard both. 

We are now enjoying unprecedented prosperity of 
our own; but here, as always, the greatness of wealth 
is not keeping pace with the immensity of extrava- 
gance, so that we view, with regret, our inability to 
emulate Mexico in setting a gait in which not even 
our own best-speeded thoroughbreds can go. Most 
of us can squander our patrimonial estates only once; 
but here is our Mexican sister, who has reached the 
35th time in hers, and is still in it. I think, there- 
fore, that all effort on our part at emulation of the 



DESCRIPTIVE. 27 



sway of our southern sister should cease; that we 
should get out of the game as soon as possible; and, 
that, acknowledging our defeat in sensuality, we 
should now turn sophist. 

As, in a description, the City of Mexico cannot be 
separated from the basin in which it is located, nor 
this from the surrounding mountains, nor the whole 
from the people, both modern and ancient, nor these 
from their history, nor this from its mournful reflec- 
tions, nor the grand total of all, from its relations to 
time and the race, I present this matter here, pref- 
aced by a statement of the general plan of laying out 
and building towns and cities in that country. I 
think, also, that towns and cities, as regards their 
kind and extent, belong most properly in the de- 
scriptive account of a country, while the means or 
manner of building them, as regards the performance 
of the work itself, would better be embraced within 
the industrial, if an exact or extended classification 
were to be made, a thing which will be observed to be 
absent from my work. 

While the large cities, such as Mexico and Guadala- 
jara, in their principal parts, are laid out with rectan- 
gular, or nearly rectangular, streets, and in the best 
portions the structures are separate buildings, yet in 
the poor quarters of these cities, as well as in all the 
small towns and cities, the ancient plan is adhered to, 
where the structures are all, or nearly all, but one 
story high, with continuous, irregular and tortuous 
walls forming the sides of corresponding streets, some- 
times half a mile or more in length without a turnout 
or cross-street, leading from and to a square, which 
is the center of the town. These walls form the fronts 



28 MEXICO. 



of the buildings, and are provided with doors, but 
less frequently windows, except in the business por- 
tion. Where the town is laid out into blocks, these 
walls inclose them like a fortress, continuous on all 
sides, with the habitations, as I prefer to call them 
rather than houses, built up against these walls on the 
inside, and the central court thus formed is used in 
common by the inhabitants of the block or fortress. 

The older part of the City of Mexico is built after 
the method, so common in Mexico, of inclosing a 
square central court with a building having, what we 
would call porches in this country, on the inside in- 
closure. These buildings are usually but one story 
high, except in the business portion of the city, where 
they are two and sometimes three stories high. I do 
not remember seeing any buildings of this construc- 
tion four stories high, because the poorness of the build- 
ing material makes high structures altogether unsafe, 
unless, as is the case with the churches, the walls 
should be made extremely thick. These inclosed 
courts, in the business portion of the city, are usually 
paved with stones, and are for the use of the tenants 
of the building; but, in the residence portions, these 
courts are gardens of flowers and trees, often of very 
great beauty and magnificence, and are, likewise, for 
the use of the tenants of the surrounding apartments. 

In the poor quarters, these inclosures are sometimes 
quite extensive, the inclosing house, presenting the 
appearance of a broad wall around them, with a main 
entrance at the center of one of the sides, and the 
doors from each apartment, usually of but one room, 
opening into the court, so that the whole thing has 
the appearance of an immense beehive, which, in fact, 



DESCRIPTIVE. 29 



it iS; of human bees, swarming in great numbers 
through each door. The windows, usually absent, 
but, if any, open into the court also ; and the outside 
of this building or square presents a sohd and con- 
tinuous wall except the main entrance, which has a 
heavy door or gate, kept locked at night, with some- 
body sleeping against it on the inside, making it im- 
possible for anybody to enter, without waking him. 
This is a real fortress. 

This style of architecture came from Spain, where 
it had been brought by the Moors, who blessed western 
Europe with learning also, but who were later cruelly 
driven out ; and, now, on the other shore of the Medi- 
terranean, are defending themselves against European 
encroachment. 

Here is another lesson on the fate of empire as de- 
termined by human oppression; but the honors are 
either divided or easy; and the case wholly beyond 
my present purpose. 

The new postofiice, recently completed, is the only 
modern structure in the older portion of the city, but 
others are in course of construction. 

That portion of the city toward Chapultepec, the 
combined White House and West Point of Mexico, is 
partially modern, and all the way to Chapultepec, on 
either side of a recently-constructed boulevard, called 
the Paseo de la Reforma, modern resident houses are 
occupying the space, and this is going to be the city, 
in fact, in time, so that those who want lots should 
buy now, before the advance in the price still urther. 

Along this boulevard, the people have constructed 
many monuments commemorating their history, and 
doing credit to their patriotism. 



30 MEXICO. 



Continuing, in a straight line, beyond Chapultepec, 
one comes to Tacubaya, formerly the gambling resort 
for the city, but that business is now carried on up- 
town; business, I guess I should call it, because it 
occupies a great deal of most people's time, in one 
form or another, both in and out of both church and 
state, as I have seen it rolling high in many churches ; 
and, I see, by the History of France, where Colbert, 
minister of finance to Louis XIV, had furnished that 
monarch four hundred thousand livres for gambling 
on a single trip, which he, of course, lost, although, 
at that very time, the French peasants, in many places, 
were subsisting on the roots of grass and herbs and the 
bark of trees. 

Such is history, and such was France then. I make 
this digression to warn the Government of Mexico, 
that it is not yet too late to reheve the wants of the 
people; but it will not heed, as no like warning has 
ever been, or ever will be, taken. 

The City of Mexico is well laid out, the streets in- 
tersecting at right angles, or nearly so, on which is 
operated a very extended and very excellent system 
of railways, radiating from a common center, and some 
of them extending to suburbs at long distances. 

I rode the length of every line in the city, and I 
doubt if this can be said of anybody else who ever 
visited Mexico, or, indeed, if, outside of employes, 
the same can be said of anybody at all. I wanted to 
see the city, and I took the right as well as the quickest 
and cheapest way to do so. 

One must also walk to see the world rightly; so I 
walked, not only through the city, but from the center 
of the city to the mountains around, selecting the 



DESCRIPTIVE, 31 



nearest, which was, nevertheless, still quite a journey; 
and I climbed up the mountain sufficiently far to get a 
good view of the city and the valley, where I sat down 
to rest, and called up, in imagination, one after another, 
the great spirits who had made this region famous, and 
communed with them, — ^the Aztecs, the Chichemecs, 
the Toltecs, and on back, through long hues of illus- 
trious and unknown races, to the morning of the world. 

Among these groups, great characters appeared, 
but I could discern only the name of Montezuma, 
all others being either illegible or entirely gone. Time 
had erased those at the greatest distance, but the fires 
kindled by the Spaniards had destroyed those of more 
recent date. 

The fires of hell, fed by the Spaniards in two worlds, 
have destroyed in either more than the value of the 
whole Spanish nation in all its history; nay, if I had 
the Aztec manuscripts heaped together in Mexico and 
burned by the Spaniards, I would not give them to 
insure the eternal soul's salvation of all Spaniards, 
dead, hving, and to be. I do not want to behttle 
the value of a soul ; but I want to say, in my estimation, 
how great was the crime of the Spaniards. This crime 
becomes all the more appalHng when we know that 
the chief reason for consigning these books to the flames, 
was forever to blot out the facts of history, lest they 
should give the He to the authority of systems. This 
is the highest crime that collective man ever perpe- 
trated ; and here, as always, committed in the sacred 
name of reUgion. 

What might we not have learned from these books? 
raises an inquiry more insupportable than positive 
ignorance. 



32 MEXICO. 



Interesting volumes, descriptive of a metropolitan 
city, such as Paris, London, or New York, might be 
written, and the life and character of its people would 
make another volume, still more interesting, which 
could be followed up with one on its history generally ; 
but while the City of Mexico bears Httle relation in 
size to Paris, London, or New York, yet it contains, 
perhaps, near 300,000 people, although the claim, as 
is usual nowadays, is, that it contains many more. 

The City of Mexico is the capital of Mexico, and the 
metropoHs of the country to which it bears a closer 
relation than Paris to France, London to England, 
or New York city to the United States. The history 
of France, aside from the court, is written largely 
outside of Paris; London cuts httle figure in the his- 
tory of England, not even being the seat of the court ; 
and New York city, as respects the general history 
of the United States, is altogether insignificant; but 
the City of Mexico, as elsewhere stated, in territorial 
and governmental importance, is comparable with 
Babylon, Egyptian Thebes, and Rome, which names 
not only stand for the country, but also for the gov- 
ernment as well. 

Now, I am afraid, I should become wearisome, if I 
should undertake more than a sketch of the basin 
in which the City of Mexico is located, with its lakes, 
supphed by rains, and fed by mountain streams, some 
of which come from the regions of eternal snow, form- 
ing a complete rampart with its towers, as if, by na- 
ture, constructed to defend this enchanted garden; 
how the mind becomes entranced, when one stands 
on a mountain, viewing the scene below, the windings 
of the streams, the expanse of the lakes, the cultivated 



DESCRIPTIVE. 33 



fields, the magic movement of railway trains, and, 
above all, gives way to that grand and inspiring 
emotion so akin to terror, when one discerns the great 
city, formerly the seat of grandeur of the Montezumas, 
and that other, once the ancient and poHshed capital 
of Tezcuco, when thoughts, too profound for words, 
fill the brain and burst the heart, when tears are the 
only expression of the soul, only to be succeeded by 
indignation and rage, impelling one to rush down the 
mountain, strike the Spaniards right and left, until 
he has exterminated them from the earth, avenged 
Montezuma, and "Remembered the Maine!" 

On the same day, looking from the valley up to the 
mountains, one may see them draw near with the se- 
verity of telescopic distinctness; early in the day, 
clouds begin to gather round the breast of the extinct 
volcanoes, and hide the heads of the lesser mountains, 
condensing until a complete Hd is formed over the 
basin, enabling one to draw a contour line of elevation 
around the entire valley against the mountains ; thun- 
ders sometimes roll in deep intonations; but, at other 
times, "the silent tempest" is poured upon the moun- 
tains, to be seen when the clouds have lifted; at sunset, 
the clouds break up into many-hued masses of gold, 
silver and turquois, reflecting their tints to both moun- 
tains and valley, Hke brave sons endeavoring to pro- 
long the glories of a departing ancestor, but to be soon 
shrouded in the mystery of darkness; the mountains 
of the west cast their lengthening shadows across the 
valley, which soon ascend and overtop the mountains 
of the east; only the extinct volcanoes on the south, 
gowned and capped, reposing in that eternal slumber 



34 MEXICO. 



from which the first ray of morning and the last of 
dechning day can never wake them, remain visibly 
distinct; but, in turn, lose their outline, so that their 
snowy summits look like white clouds in the sky; 
only a thread of gold now borders the western horizon, 
already going to pieces, and disappearing; but a dull 
radiance lingers in the west, as if the day were dying 
hard; the waves of the distant Pacific, like the last 
effort of departing hope, throw back the glimmer of 
Hght from the western skies; and now darkness, 
darkness, darkness, end of both day and hope; but 
soon the glories of the east rekindle both day and hope ; 
and we live and hope again. The world is but a day, 
and a day, the world. 

With some observations on the effect of altitude, 
I will close the descriptive chapter. 

During the latter part of January, 1907, 1 left Topeka, 
Kansas, an altitude of about 1000 feet, arriving, in 
two days, at Zacatecas, Mexico, a short distance 
within the tropics, an altitude of about 8000 feet. The 
weather at Topeka was then unusually mild, with a 
temperature about equal to that of Zacatecas, so that 
I do not have a difference, or, at least, a material dif- 
ference, in temperature to consider ; but the difference 
in humidity was considerable, the air at Zacatecas 
being very much dryer than at Topeka. During the 
daytime at Zacatecas, I felt fairly comfortable; but, 
at night, neither clothing nor spirits produced bodily 
warmth, a condition to be appreciated only by ex- 
perieiice. I did not have the benefit of artificial heat, 
as, in no part of Mexico, is that necessity available, 
because of the poverty of the people and the lack of 



DESCRIPTIVE. 35 



a local supply of fuel. Discomfort would express my 
bodily feeling the first night, but no word short of 
misery is forcible enough for the second, as I was suf- 
fering intense pain over my entire dermal surface, 
which, however, disappeared with the second night; 
and I had no recurrence of it during my stay in any 
part of the country, not even again at Zacatecas, where 
I returned in several weeks after being at a lower al- 
titude. 

What I will call, in myself at least, the sensation of 
altitude, such as I always experience for a day, on 
going from Topeka to Colorado to an altitude of 5000 
feet or 6000 feet, a slight blurring of vision, dimin- 
ished audition, but, above all, a peculiar unsteadiness 
of equilibrium, not altogether expHcable by the word 
dizziness, produced by a feeling of cerebral expansion, 
either by too great a blood supply within, or the re- 
duction of atmospheric pressure without, as well as 
that general tactile impression, which, for want of a 
word expressive of its true character, I will call ting- 
Hng, I did not experience at all, doubtless because the 
gradual and long ascent gave sufficient time for the 
adjustment of my bodily mechanism with natural 
conditions. 

Five thousand feet to eight thousand feet above 
sea-level is no great elevation at which to Hve, although 
its influences are very perceptible to those suddenly 
ascending from sea-level or within about 1000 feet 
of sea-level. The first impulse is for increased physical 
activity; one desires to, and, actually does, run; 
then succeeds a mental activity producing gaiety, 
laughter, loquaciousness; then increased hunger and 
thirst; early waking and late retiring, sleeplessness, 



36 MEXICO. 



with a rapid pulse accompanying; various modifica- 
tions of all the senses; and, lastly, the reaction, the 
depression. 

How like intoxication! I mean the intoxication we 
have seen ; and this, indeed, is its true explanation. 

The greatest elevation I ever attained was the sum- 
mit of Pike's Peak, after remaining at an elevation of 
about 5000 feet until the sensation of elevation there 
had disappeared; but, strange to me, the sudden as- 
cent, in an hour, from about 5000 feet to 14,147 feet, 
produced no apparent effect. 

For effects occurring at the extreme heights of moun- 
tain-cHmbers of 18,000 feet to 19,000 feet, I must refer 
to the writings of Humboldt and others, as well as to 
'' Leaves from an Aeronaut," if access to more authentic 
Uterature is not to be had, as this is not within my 
experience. 

Now, I will state what I think is the cause of all 
this: The immediate effects are mechanical, produced 
by the diminution of atmospheric pressure, causing 
an increased activity, first of the peripheral nerves, 
thence centrally, accelerating the heart's action. 

If we know certainly that, by the pricking of a single 
pin causing pain, we can increase the heart-beats, on 
principle I conclude that a general peripheral influence, 
though short of actual pain, is the correct explanation 
-of the cause of the rapid pulse of high altitudes. 

Following the direct mechanical influence of eleva- 
tion by diminished atmospheric pressure, I place the 
humidity of the atmosphere as the second operating 
cause. 

I had been living at an altitude of about 1000 feet, 
where the atmosphere is of that degree of humidity 



DESCRIPTIVE. 37 



as produces sufficient precipitation for the growing 
of the cereals, the grasses, and the fruits of the tem- 
perate zone. At Zacatecas, I was about 8000 feet 
above sea-level, where no moisture had been precipi- 
tated for three or four months, and where, during even 
the rainy season in the tropics, but Httle rain falls. 
The air was intensely dry, and, at night, cold, but too 
dry for frost. By the second day I had dried out hke 
a starched garment on the line. The cold air, no 
longer kept at a respectful distance by dermal exu- 
dation, pressed directly upon my dry cuticle, which, in 
turn, pressing upon my nerve-ends, or tactile corpus- 
cles, as the anatomists say, produced discomfort first, 
then pain; but the adjustment, the accommodation, 
soon came to my rehef . 

The corresponding decrease of temperature with in- 
crease of altitude must also be considered in arriving 
at general results; but this has relation, almost en- 
tirely, to permanent effects in the growth, develop- 
ment and life of both vegetables and animals; and is, 
therefore, a matter for exact scientific observations 
and experiments, which are beyond my reach, as well 
as purpose. 

My hope, in these articles, is, that I may be able to 
keep up a Uvely interest in the narrative portion by 
cutting it short, omitting tiresome details, which, 
though engaging to the writer by reason of his per- 
sonal experience, are always rubbish to the reader, 
and then to draw practical, scientifical, political or 
social conclusions, as the case may be. 

I will, therefore, continue: On the same spot or 
surface, I feel comfortable, normal, which, in reality, 
is the absence of all sensation, hot or cold, pleasure 



38 MEXICO. 



or pain, to which I will add the numbness of pathologi- 
cal conditions, heat and cold being but divisions of the 
temperature sense, and pleasure and pain of the sense 
of touch. 

I can now proceed to the statement of the question : 
Are all these varied and different sensations conveyed 
to the brain in the same channel, along the same course, 
by the same means, or has each its separate instru- 
mentahty ? 

As anatomists have not yet developed the fact, 
novices may speculate. 

We first learn that we have five senses — sight, hear- 
ing, smell, taste, touch; and, later, we read about 
the temperature sense, the muscular sense, the sense 
of pain, and so on ; and that each of these has its special 
nerves, until we wonder where we may find a place to 
stop in this differentiating process ; but I would favor 
taking the other course, not extreme, I hope, and re- 
duce everything to unity; that all impressions, in the 
largest sense of that word, becoming perceptions, are 
cognized by the sense of touch, and that the sense of 
touch is the only one we have, all others, so called, be- 
ing but modifications for accommodation. 

Enlarging on this idea, I am a firm believer that rea- 
son will ultimately reduce all things to unity, whether 
of force or of entity merely is beyond my purpose now 
to pursue ; but I hope my reader may have the pleasure 
of following, in imagination, the bright path of fancy, 
if not, by induction, the highway of reason, to that 
which must ultimately be regarded as, at once, the 
beginning and the end of all things. 

Space, or, more restrictedly, direction, or, still more, 
location, is cognizable by all the senses, and herein 



DESCRIPTIVE, 39 



is unity. The same original protoplasmic substance, 
under varied influences and circumstances, has been 
differentiated into speciahzations for the purpose of 
accommodation, the adaptation of structure and func- 
tion to conditions, not structure and function pro- 
ducing conditions. 

Hereon has been waged the strongest controversy 
of scientific times, which has occupied much of my 
valuable time to read but a small portion, never once 
reflecting that even among children I never heard 
any doubt expressed or. argument maintained as to 
the motor element in the combination of cart and 
horse. 

What I have heretofore said has reference specially 
to the immediate bodily effects of altitude ; if I should 
now pursue the subject in its permanent effects upon 
the growth, development and life of the body, I would 
be obhged to write a long chapter on Anthropology; 
if I should turn to its influence on mind, I would be 
invading Philosophy; if, to its deteriorating effects, 
I would be poaching on the doctors' domains, which 
are guarded so closely and jealously as to keep out 
even those who would replenish the game. 

I will, however, notwithstanding, say something on 
all these phases of the subject incidentally in connec- 
tion with other parts of my story. 

If, again, I should undertake to say anything of 
the effect of altitude on vegetation, in general, or 
plant life, in particular, even though I should keep 
closely to my own experiences and observations, I 
would have to start over again, and write another 
book; but, in order to complete my outline, I will 
give a few instances only, by way of illustration, hav- 



40 MEXICO. 



ing a particular bearing upon the parallel between 
altitude and latitude in the creation of zones. 

Tournefort, in the reign of Louis XIV, in ascend- 
ing Mt. Ararat, discovered, for the first time, to the 
world, the existence, at different elevations, of zones 
of vegetable life corresponding with those to be met 
with in passing from the equator to the poles ; but this 
is a correspondence with a distinction, and, almost, 
with a difference. 

I have seen the mature strawberry from the 20th 
to the 50th parallel of north latitude; at the 20th, 
soft, elongated, watery, glucose, pink; at the 50th, 
hard, round, dry, saccharine, purple; and, between 
these latitudes, all gradations. 

I have likewise followed it from sea-level at the Gulf 
of Mexico, ripe in March, to an altitude of 11,000 feet 
in Colorado, ripe in September ; at the gulf, soft, oval, 
watery, sour, crimson; at 11,000 feet, hard, bell- 
shaped, dry, tasteless, yellowish; and, hkewise, also, 
between these elevations, all gradations. 

In southern Mexico, on the plateaus, I saw willows 
ten to twelve feet in diameter; in Canada, dwindled 
to isolated bright yellow twigs, and I have read of 
them as far north as the 70th parallel. 

At sea-level, near the Gulf of Mexico, the willow is 
an ordinary-sized tree; while, in the highest altitudes, 
or about 9000 feet, in Colorado, where I have seen it 
grow, it is a rod, scarce one inch in diameter and not 
ten feet high, thickly clustered together hke a bunch 
of grass. 

The mighty oak, at its best, I think, between the 
35th and 40th parallels north, becomes tougher, 
smaller and deformed south, but always entitled to 



DESCRIPTIVE. 41 



the dignified name of tree; while north, although for 
a long distance maintaining its stature as a tree, be- 
comes brittle, then small, until the shrub, or ''scrub," 
as we say, is reached. 

As one ascends from sea-level, the oak passes through 
all gradations of its zone, until its highest elevations 
in Colorado, where I have seen forests of it but a 
few inches in height, and the trunks, slender as a straw, 
having only one, two or three immensely large leaves, 
and seldom more than one overgrown acorn. I have 
uprooted these trees, and find them supported by 
roots three or four feet long and an inch thick. 

Now, you see that increase of elevation does not 
entirely correspond with progression of latitude. 
Difference in air-pressure, humidity, heat, sunhght, 
must all be taken into the question. 

So much for the effect of altitude, and incidentally 
its comparison with latitude. 



CHAPTER II. 
INDUSTRIAL. 

In a country, where the people follow such a primi- 
tive mode of life, in the midst of extreme poverty, 
but little can be said on the industrial features, as 
their absence is the most noticeable thing about them. 

The advent of railroads into Mexico broke the 
monotony of hundreds of years of existence rather 
than life following the Spanish conquest. Between 
that conquest and the advent of the railroads, the 
Spaniards and their descendants, after murdering a 
large number of the people, and subduing the others, 
took from them the whole country, parceling it out 
among themselves, and domicihng, on their private 
domains or haciendas, thus obtained, that portion of 
the populace, escaping, in the wars of the conquest, 
from death at the hands of the most despicable of 
men. 

On these haciendas, the people first hved as the 
absolute slaves of the masters of the domains, as I 
cannot call the occupancy of the Spaniards either 
possessory or proprietary; afterward the system of 
peonage was established, which, I was informed, had 
been abrogated in 1885, where men rendered personal 
services in discharge of an obligation from which, in 
view of the manner of procedure, they could never 
free themselves, a system, I think, in its results, more 

[42] 



INDUSTRIAL. 43 



demoralizing than absolute slavery, as it removed 
the responsibihty of ownership from the master, by 
withdrawing from the man his protection and care, 
thus throwing upon the man all the responsibilities 
of life, without any means to meet them. 

In portions of the United States, at this time, the 
negro population is handled by a system, having all 
the force of peonage, where, overwhelmed with an 
ever-increasing debt, their personal labor is applied, 
in vain, against its extinguishment, and they are thus 
hopelessly involved in financial ruin from which death 
alone can ever reheve them. 

The white tenantry, let me say it loudly, in portions 
of the United States, are also getting themselves in 
these same toils, with the same sad fate ahead. 

This system is more advantageous to the land- 
owner than chattel slavery, because, here, the land- 
owner, in the capacity of master, takes all the earnings 
of the man, resulting from his great efforts, which, he 
imagines, are for himself; and the master is relieved 
even of the responsibilities of ownership; whereas, if 
the master had a proprietary interest in the man, and 
the man knew he was a slave, his efforts would be weak, 
and his work non-productive and unprofitable to the 
master. 

I make this statement, not in the hope that slavery 
may be re-instituted, but to show how despicable is 
the present situation of affairs. 

The advent of the railroads in Mexico, as elsewhere 
stated, marked the beginning of the emancipation of 
these poor people; and the railroads will be the means 
of eventually completing their amehoration; but they 
are now in that transitional state, between slavery 



44 MEXICO. 



and freedom, where all the distresses of their former 
condition are added to the misfortunes of their present 
state. This is that transition period always the most 
trying in the lives of individuals as well as nations; 
where responsibilities arise, without the means of 
meeting them; where the individual and the pubhc 
mind are alike in suspense between regret and hope; 
where the distresses of the new situation seem greater 
than the evils of the past; and where the doubts for 
the future discourage the action of the present. 

The future of these people, I am afraid, is not very 
bright; but their condition is getting better; and, I 
entertain the hope, that I may Hve to see the day, 
when poetic justice will be practically done, because I 
am not a believer in the ethereal, nor yet in the reality 
of eternal retribution, which may defer decision beyond 
the hfe of the individual as well as of the race. 

• Coming now from the general view of the life of the 
Mexicans, as affects the destiny of the race, I descend to 
particulars, which will sound more Hke an account of 
their domestic life than a statement of how, on the 
scale employed by us, they provide for their daily 
wants, which is the meaning of industrial, as appHed by 
me in this chapter; and, how they supply themselves 
with clothing, food and shelter will, for a short time, 
engage our attention. 

As food is the first requirement of man, and as agri- 
culture is the chief occupation in Mexico, I will first 
give an account of what, of utility, grows there, and, 
in passing, the manner of performing the work. 

No effort will be made, in the largest sense, to say 
what grows in Mexico, because anyone, needing that 
information, will find the proper source in scientific 



INDUSTRIAL. 45 



works and government reports ; but I will attempt to 
give a few facts, without technicalities, and without 
even trying to dignify the subject with the word '' flora/' 
except to say that I hope Flora will never find out 
what dead names we have given to the sweet objects 
of her care ; and, I imagine, notwithstanding the fact 
that she is a native of Italia, she would be altogether 
lost, if she chanced upon a catalogue, in our Latin, 
of the flora even of her own country. 

I will, also, caution that scientific works, except to 
the initiated, and government reports, except to those 
who otherwise know, are often misleading, not only on 
account of the unintelligible nomenclature and the 
great number of species usually given, but more es- 
pecially by reason of the lack of proper information 
as to the relative importance of those catalogued. 

To illustrate, I will give a quotation from Dr. Kane's 
account of the island of Disco, on the west coast of 
Greenland, at latitude 70° north : 

The arctic turf is unequaled ; nothing in the tropics 
approaches it for specific variety; and, in density, 
it far exceeds its Alpine congener. Two birches, three 
willows, that noble heath, the Andromeda, the whortle- 
berry, the crowberry, and a potentilla were, in one in- 
stance, all wreathed together in a matted sod, from 
whose intricate network, rising within an area of a 
single foot, I counted no less than six species of flower- 
ing plants. 

In a ravine, back of the settlement, the washings of 
the melted snow had accumulated, in little escalades 
or terraces, a scanty mould, rich with arctic growths. 

The mosses, which met the lichens at a sort of neutral 
ground between rock and soil, were particularly rich. 
So sodden were they with the percolating waters that 
you sank up to your ankles. Nestling curiously under 



46 MEXICO. 



their protecting tufts rose a complete parterre of tinted 
flowers consisting of gentians, ranunculus, ledum, draba, 
potentilla, saxifrages, poppy, and sedums. 

Surely the real-estate agents have overlooked this; 
and, if I am the cause of putting that island on the mar- 
ket for settlement, by offering all the advantages of 
cheap lands and high products, I hope that the enter- 
prising dealers, thus profiting, will kindly remember 
me, at least to the extent of letting me in on the ground 
floor for a large block of the stock at par, before the ad- 
vance, so that, in my old age, I may paper at least one 
room with beautifully-engraved certificates of stock. 

Upon the same grounds, do I recommend emigration 
to Mexico, having the same hope to be kindly remem- 
bered by those profiting by my suggestion. 

Approximately speaking, all without the tropics in 
Mexico is barren, or nearly so, excepting always, of 
course, the irrigated districts along the streams, which 
are few and far between, granting barren to have its 
ordinary, and not its absolute, meaning, because a 
plain, having only a Uttle native grass, a few thorny 
shrubs, much or little cactus, and no running water, 
is, in the ordinary acceptation, barren. This describes 
two-thirds of the country, or all that lying outside the 
tropics, and much of that within. 

Wheat grows to advantage only on irrigated land; 
and, in all places where I saw it on other land, a failure, 
or nearly a failure, was the result. The time of sowing 
is, what we, in the United States, call the fall ; the time 
of reaping is our midwinter; the product, from a few 
to a few bushels per acre, never escaping the designation 
of few; the quality, poor to rejected; the berry, long, 
slender and flinty; the flour, dark and harsh; the 



INDUSTRIAL. 47 



bread, all biscuit, as the flour cannot be handled in 
loaves. Not enough wheat is grown in the country 
at present for home comsumption, and large quantities 
are imported from the United States. 

Rye, I saw but a very few acres ; and, as I am speak- 
ing only of gross results, will count it out altogether. 

Barley is grown to a limited extent; and, as it is 
very short, is harvested by pulling it up by the roots by 
hand, and packing it in rope nets. 

Oats, not grown at all. 

Corn is the great staple of the country, as it can be 
grown on upland without irrigation: I saw but one 
attempt to grow it on irrigated land, and there the 
stalks were spindly, more than twenty feet high, and 
not an ear ; but, on the upland, where the best results 
are obtained, it grows a little taller than ordinarily 
in the United States, with a more slender stalk, having 
a small ear, usually about four inches in length, and of 
corresponding diameter; the grains, long, shriveled, 
loose on the cob, and becoming worm-eaten soon after 
maturity, as is the case with corn in all southern coun- 
tries. The poorest corn I saw would make about two 
bushels per acre, the best about twelve, with seven or 
eight, perhaps, as the average yield. It is all cut and 
shocked, and some of it afterward stacked, or stowed 
away in the branches of trees, presenting the appear- 
ance of an immense bird's-nest. During the winter 
and spring, it is husked, shucked, snipped, picked, 
gathered, the name depending upon what part of the 
country you hail from ; and is always shelled and sacked 
for marketing. So much for the cereals. 

Of hay, cut from wild grass, I saw but a few stacks, 
probably less than one hundred tons, although I was 



48 MEXICO. 



told of one place, on one of the railway lines leading 
from the City of Mexico to the Gulf, where it was 
abundant. Buffalo most largely, bunch, and several 
other kinds which I had never before seen, and of 
which I could learn no name, make up the grasses. 
Timothy and clover, I saw none; kaJ5ir-corn, none; 
sorghum, none; alfalfa, that great gift to the world 
in recent times, grows perennially on irrigated ground. 
So much for the hay and feed producers. 

Potatoes vary in size from a hulled hickorynut to a 
hulled black walnut; sweet potatoes grow well; tur- 
nips and carrots, small ; tomatoes, very small and bit- 
ter; onions, any sizes and styles, the year round; 
peppers, peppers, peppers; strawberries, the year 
round, at one place only; the other common berries, 
I saw nor heard of none. 

A variety of other small fruits, bearing about the 
same relation there as our groundcherry, Mayapple, 
sarvis, haw, pawpaw, persimmon, etc., and, indeed, 
some identical in all but the name, should be mentioned ; 
but they have mostly that sickish, sweetish taste, so 
f amihar in the Mayapple and pawpaw ; and, I imagine, 
the less one eats of them, the more secure may he con- 
sider his health. So much for the vegetables and small 
fruits. 

A few varieties of the common apple grow very 
poorly; crabapples produce a ripened, wormy crop; 
peaches and apricots do well; and I was told a few 
pears and plums were grown; cherries, I saw none. 
And so much for the fruits proper. 

That I may not weary, let me hastily mention the 
orange, in widely-scattered locaUties, but of a quality 
that would not sell in competition with the products 



INDUSTRIAL. 49 



of California and Florida; I saw no acid lemons, 
which we use in making lemonade, but abundance of 
sweet ones; bananas, small and dry, of about one- 
third the ordinary size ; a small amount of coffee, dry, 
tasteless and odorless; sugarcane, along the streams, 
where it can be well irrigated, in the tierra caliente. 

I must mention what we ordinarily call the century- 
plant, when we see it in hot-houses in the United 
States, but called by its native name maguey, which, 
still, as in the days before the Conquest, produces 
clothing, food and drunks, but less of the former two 
and more of the latter, now than then. Its fermented 
sap or juice is called pulque, or Mexican beer, having 
somewhat the taste, to me, of thin, over-sour butter- 
milk. Distillations are obtained from its roots, called 
mescal and tequila, tasting, to me, also, I must say, 
as one might imagine a mixture of pure alcohol and 
Scotch whisky would, having the fire of the alcohol 
and the smoke of the Scotch. Some people, to whom 
I have made this statement, have denied knowledge 
of what either alcohol or Scotch whisky is hke; and, 
if any of my readers are so innocent, also, and still 
have a curiosity, they can find out, without being 
either indiscreet, or violating their pledge, by taking 
a shovelful of green hickory or sour oak coals, just as 
they are giving off their densest cloud of smoke, and 
swallow them. This experiment will furnish a genuine 
substitute for the original. 

This illustration is very appropriate, also, with re- 
spect to the whisky of our prohibition States; and I 
gladly give temperance lecturers the permission, not- 
withstanding my copyright, to use it, even without 
acknowledgment. .„ 



50 MEXICO. 



Cotton, in small acreage on irrigated land, I men- 
tion, also; and tobacco, for home consumption, a few 
acres on each hacienda. 

Only the southern portion of Mexico can, in any 
sense, be said to be tropical. The elevation is so high 
as to give to the generality of the country a temperate 
climate, which is not, however, of the same variety, 
called temperate in the United States. The west 
coast-line pitches precipitously into the ocean; and, 
while a strip of lowland borders the gulf and the sea 
on the east, yet it is subject to almost the same con- 
ditions of moisture as the tablelands ; and the northers 
sometimes sweep down along the gulf-coast in winter 
with such severity as to drive the tropical birds to the 
interior, producing winter effects even as far south as 
Vera Cruz. 

Having thus briefly given an account of what of 
domestic utility and commercial value grows in Mexico, 
I will now make a few observations respecting the 
migrations of man, who, often, living in his own good 
home, with plenty, if not a superfluity, with intelli- 
gent children, a contented wife, kind neighbors and 
many friends, sells his home at a sacrifice, and emi- 
grates to the uncertainties of a new or unknown coun- 
try, should be actuated by the most powerful reasons ; 
yet, this is the true wave of emigration now in prog- 
ress from the East to the West, letting in Europe 
behind it, so that the eastern portion of the United 
States is no more American, but European, both as to 
population and customs, thus establishing, in this 
country, the institutions from which our forefathers 
fled, who so bravely established their liberties here 
at the cost of so much blood and treasure. 



INDUSTRIAL. 51 



O shade of Washington, wilt thou not be propitious 
unto us! Since all other warnings have failed, wilt 
thou not lift up thy hand, and write upon the sky, 
that we may yet take warning? And blot out, for- 
ever blot out, the scrawlings of those fools, who have 
chalked their names above the sculpture of thy own! 

If we do nothing to break the force of this wave, 
the principles for which the Revolution was fought 
will soon be remembered only on the shores of the 
Pacific, where, finding their limit, they may some- 
time react on what is now their impelling force. 

For this, we have history, which first shows us the 
Celt in Asia Minor, who, advancing before the pressure 
of the great Asiatic wave, at last found a lodgment 
in the northwestern confines of Europe, where, by 
reason of the ocean, he could go no farther. This 
wave is reacting, and the Celt, now dominant in western 
Europe, is extending his influence eastward; but, as 
the wave, reacting from the shore, is never so great 
or powerful as the incoming, which it must soon en- 
counter, the result is easily predicted, because social 
as well as physical dynamics are under the dominion 
of the same law. 

Still the wind, if you would stop the wave. Shut 
the gates, if you would keep out the tide. These are 
truths, whether physically, socially or psychically 
considered. 

As closely connected with irrigation and the trans- 
portation of the products of agriculture, I wiU refer 
to the canals and aqueducts of the country, both 
ancient and modern. 

Before the Conquest, and for time beyond record, 



52 MEXICO. 



Mexico had numerous canals, some to convey water 
from the mountains and streams to irrigate the land, 
and others for the purposes of commerce. La Viga 
is one of these latter, extending from the City of 
Mexico to the lake, thence furnishing a waterway to 
Tezcuco, and doubtless of great importance in those 
ancient times as a means of transportation between 
those capitals. 

I must have the satisfaction of a voyage on this 
canal, and I embarked in a boat operated by a native 
Mexican, who is quite talkative, explaining more than 
I ask about ; stopping on the way, he takes me through 
a large flower garden, where an immense bouquet is 
cut and handed me, from which, looking to the south, 
a magnificent view of the mountains of eternal snow 
is to be had, which is for the purpose of impressing me 
with the delicious experience of standing in the midst 
of flowers, with a bunch in my hand, in midwinter, 
and looking up to the regions of perpetual snow. I 
do not have time, however, to stop and write poetry, 
as I am asked to proceed to a building, occupied as a 
residence by native Mexicans, but, in reality, a mu- 
seum, mostly of the relics of that ancient people, a 
large, most valuable and interesting collection, which 
I took to be that of some individual or family. I was 
shown through this; but, as everything had the air 
of privacy; and, as the sad demeanor of the matron 
of the place impressed me with the feeling that, if 
here is not a representative of some distinguished 
family of the Ancients, exhibiting this as a relic to 
the world of their personal loss in the general destruc- 
tion of the Conquest, at least, she is thus representing 
the race; and this made me feel so sad also, that I 



INDUSTRIAL. 53 



did not have the heart to ask any questions; but 
followed her mournfully through the house, as if view- 
ing the precious belongings of a dear and deceased 
relative. At last, we came to the exit, and I was 
shown a large book in which I was invited to write 
my name, and anything else which came to mind; 
and here is what I wrote : 

Yourselves, your wives, your long-descending race 

May every god adorn with every grace; 

Still fixed on virtue may your nation stand, 

And public evil never touch your land ! (Homer, Ody.) 

A. A. Graham, Topeka, Kansas, U. S. A. 

Returning to my boat, I proceed a little farther, 
then return; and, as I sat in the stern of the boat, 
viewing these scenes and reflecting, as the boatman 
pulled heavily along, I imagined that I might be re- 
living, to a certain extent at least, the life on these 
canals in the year 5000 before Adam, because this 
continent, geologically considered, and, I suspect, 
anthropologically, also, is the Old World, and not the 
New ; and I imagined I might be a great chief of those 
ancient people conveyed along this historic canal by 
one of my slaves; and instantly I reflect how human 
vanity overrides all things, even those for which I had 
but just now mourned. 

O people, never trust your liberties nor delegate 
your government to man, but always exercise your 
own prerogatives ! 

On landing, my boatman, having learned, during 
the trip, that I was an American, asked me, in addition 
to the hire of his boat, if I would give him ten cents 
extra to buy a glass of whisky, which I did with great 



54 MEXICO. 



pleasure, so as to keep up the reputation of my coun- 
trymen abroad. 

As I can give only the briefest reference to the 
ancient and modern canals, ditches and aqueducts 
for the conveyance of water for irrigating the land 
and supplying cities and towns, I must refer those 
desiring an extended knowledge of this wonderful 
system, to Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, and, also, 
of Peru; and, those desiring to find wonders generally 
in this direction may read up about Tadmor or Palmyra, 
in Arabia, now in ruins also. 

The cruel and savage conquerors, after destroying 
everything, as far as they could, including these canals, 
set about in after years, to construct, for their own 
glory, stupendous aqueducts, none of which, I believe, 
are now in use; and which I will call, as their ruins 
impressed me, monuments of extravagance and igno- 
rance. 

At Zacatecas, a large portion of one of these great 
aqueducts still remains; and the most casual glance 
will show anyone, not an engineer, how the same re- 
sult could have been easily and cheaply attained. 
Seeing this, I asked a gentleman, familiar with its 
history, about this method of construction, and he 
informed me that the engineer adopted this plan so 
that his name might be connected with a great enter- 
prise, a universal human weakness; but, that, had he 
adopted the sensible course, and carried the ditch 
around the face of the slope, the work would have been 
easily, quickly and cheaply performed. 

What was the name of this great engineer? Answer : 
As his monument stamps him a fool, I, perhaps, would 
do him a kindness to conceal it. 



INDUSTRIAL. 55 



Had the amount of money necessary for the more 
costly construction, or the contracts growing out of 
it, anything to do with the method adopted? An- 
swer : Now, you are getting too personal, curious and 
impertinent, and I will not answer this question at all. 

Ditches, properly so called, are the present means 
for carrying water for irrigating purposes, and the sys- 
tem of main and lateral, as now commonly employed, 
wherever irrigation is done on a large scale, is here 
found; and the modern system of piping supplies 
the larger cities, while the smaller cities and towns 
still employ the most ancient means, "the carrier of 
water, '^ 

Sometimes we find rivers dammed, and their entire 
waters diverted, and spread over cultivated lands; 
but, most generally, the v/ork is not so extended, a 
single owner being the proprietor of his own irrigating 
system. 

Wheat, on the tablelands, and sugarcane, in the tierra 
cahente, are the great crops requiring irrigation. Al- 
falfa, here perennial, must, also, be thus provided for, 
as well as the less pretentious, but more important 
gardening. 

The people raise a great many goats, and these are 
the most important animals in the country, and are 
most generally used for slaughter. The meat is not 
good, but, then, it is better than none. Next comes 
beef, also of a poor quality, and usually served as a 
stew; then pork of a fairly good quality, and more 
plentiful than I had expected to find it. Fowls do 
well, and chickens and eggs are the meat supply of 
very many. 



56 MEXICO. 



The people make nearly all their own clothing. 
Those who do not go barefoot; make for themselves a 
sandal cut from sole-leather, strapped to the foot, on 
which they wear no sock. Since our own customs 
are changing, I feel obhged to say, in order to be prop- 
erly understood, that the men wear pants of a thin 
white cotton, without an undergarment; and, indeed, 
the word drawers does not exist in the languages of 
Mexico. On their body, they wear a short jacket, 
blouse, jumper, roundabout, or waumus, as variously 
styled in the United States, made of the same white 
cotton stuff; and they, sometimes, enjoy the luxury 
of a shirt of the same material. Their hat, sombrero, 
is a great and distinctive work of art, sometimes of 
the value of twenty dollars or more, and often that 
many times more valuable than all the remainder of 
their apparel. The blanket, used by both sexes, is 
ordinarily of a coarse weave and a red color, serving as 
a wrap by day, and bed and bedding by night. The 
women dress in the skirts usual in Europe and America, 
and some of them wear shoes of the common make, 
the remainder going barefoot, as I saw none wearing 
the sandals; some, also, wear the sombrero, but the 
usual headdress of the women is a small black shawl. 
I feel obhged to mention these articles of wearing ap- 
parel here, because they are all, or almost all, made by 
the people themselves, and constitute about their sole 
manufacturing resources. 

I stepped into the house of a blanket- weaver. Here, 
on the ground, one on either side of the entrance, sat 
two men, one of them blind, carding wool, which was 
taken by the spinner, and drawn into coarse threads 
and wound upon a spindle; then a man placed the 



INDUSTRIAL. 57 



thread upon a reel from which he prepared the bob- 
bins; while the man at the loom threw the shuttle. 

Man surely got his idea of the Fates from such a 
scene as this, and that was the thought which came to 
me on the spot. 

I am at a loss to know how people can exist in a cli- 
mate as inhospitable as most of Mexico, dressed in this 
manner. On my trip to Panindicuaro, elsewhere de- 
scribed, a poor boy, the son of the driver, had to go 
along, as boys have a propensity for driving; and, 
at times of the day when I was cold in closely buttoned 
winter clothing, this lad, with nothing but a straw hat 
and a thin cotton waist and pants, showed no signs of 
discomfort. While I had no use for him, and, in fact, 
he was in the way, as boys sometimes are, yet I paid 
him fifty cents a day- while on the trip, thinking he 
would use the money in providing himself some cloth- 
ing; but, no, he took all the money home, where he 
doubtless found a use for it more pressing than pro- 
viding for his own terrible condition. This is the only 
money he ever had, and he was very careful of it; 
and, for myself, I am sure that I will always live in his 
mind as a great personage. 

I have, also, seen people in a portion of the United 
States, dress, with the exception of the feet, in much 
the, same way as the Mexicans ; and, when I would be 
shivering with the cold, although heavily dressed, 
they would appear comfortable in only enough cloth- 
ing to wad that proverbial shotgun. 

I remember once, traveling through the mountains 
of North CaroHna, during the summer, near the Ten- 
nessee line, and, perhaps, I was in Tennessee at the 
time, because I do not want to appear partial; and, 



58 MEXICO. 



meeting with a farmer, I began to talk with him over 
the fence, asking questions, as I usually do, but giving 
advice only when people ask me, and, incidentally, 
pay me. After making myself as agreeably pleasant 
as I knew how, I asked this farmer if it got very cold 
in this country during the winter, to which he replied : 
"No, if you have a right smart shirt, a pair of over- 
alls and a roundabout, you can go through the winter 
all right, and in any kind of society." 

In the country, the Mexican houses in the higher 
altitudes are usually built of sun-baked bricks of large 
dimensions, laid up without mortar, while, in the 
towns, the same material is used for the wall, but 
plastered outside and inside. The roof is usually 
earth, and is sometimes covered with a coat of cement 
plaster; but in the lower countries, the walls of the 
houses are often nothing more than a stone fence, and 
the roof is of brush and grass ; while in the hot country, 
the houses are of grass, reeds, sugarcane and corn- 
stalks. 

And now I have said something about the industries 
of the Mexicans in providing themselves with clothing, 
food and shelter. 

Their arts, for arts they have, I shall mention when 
I come to speak of their civilization, as a more appro- 
priate place for that subject. 

On going into the country, I noticed that the out- 
bound passenger trains were very much more crowded 
than the incoming, and this condition I observed dur- 
ing my entire stay. I saw passenger cars containing 
as many as two hundred Mexican laborers going to the 
United States, packing the cars so completely that the 
ticket collector had to walk through on the arms of 



INDUSTRIAL. 59 



the seats, holding to the transoms. These men rode 
in this condition hundreds of miles; had they been 
cattle of any grade, they would not have been so 
handled ; but they were men, men leaving the country 
against the will of the government and the desire of 
the land-owner, with every discouragement placed in 
their way. 

Not only by rail, but on foot, in long files, following 
a banner of hope, carried at the head of the column, 
men, without money, and with only a sack of provi- 
sions, a gourd of water, and a blanket for cloak by 
day, and bed and tent by night, are marching out of 
the country. 

Ill fares the land to lasting ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. 
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, 
A breath can make them, as a breath has made; 
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied. 

— The Deserted Village. 

The emigration, in large numbers, of the Mexicans 
to the United States, where they learn the operation, 
and see the effects, of civil government, and then 
return to Mexico, imparting the information to their 
countrymen, thence to the United States again with 
their famihes, is not only depleting Mexico, but is 
working, aside from this material physical change, 
a modification in the religious, poHtical and social 
life of the people, and is the very cause finally to pro- 
duce a revolution in their condition. 

Military and governmental revolutions almost always 
mean merely a change of masters, bringing to the peo- 
ple only the additional burden of the change; and 



60 MEXICO. 



these are what Mexico has, for so long, been enduring ; 
but her amehoration will finally come from foreign 
travel, that great educational source, which brought 
civilization into Europe with the return of the cru- 
saders, and incidentally sowed the seeds of the Refor- 
mation. 

One of the surest lessons taught by history is that 
emigration, forced from a country, marks its dechne. 
Mexico should, therefore, learn, and might yet take 
warning; but she will not. 

All industries in Mexico will reahze, when too late, 
that they cannot keep laborers there on 12^ cents to 
25 cents per day, when they can obtain $1.50 to $2.00 
per day in the United States, where they will have 
the advantage, also, of human treatment; and emi- 
gration to the United States must, therefore, continue 
to increase, to the great detriment of Mexico. 

What grows out of the ground and is produced 
from mines constitutes all the wealth of Mexico, be- 
cause she has neither manufactures nor foreign trade. 
Her land, for a long time, I am satisfied from appear- 
ances, and her mines for a shorter time, have been 
suffering for lack of laborers ; hence, she is decreasing 
in wealth. 

I am not enthusiastic over the coming of the Mexi- 
cans to the United States; I would be glad if they 
could find it convenient and profitable to stay at home ; 
and I would rejoice to know that conditions in that 
country had improved to the extent of making it de- 
sirable for them to stay at home, or return, after hav- 
ing been with us. 

The present condition of the Mexicans must still 
exist for some time, because the majority of the people 



INDUSTRIAL. 61 






are too poor to leave; and, if they did leave in large 
numbers, they would have no place to go, nor would 
they be able to Hve at all, until they got out of the 
country. 

A state of subjection may be so complete that even 
liberty cannot change it. 

During the year 1906, according to newspaper re- "/ 
ports, about twenty-two thousand Mexicans arrived 
at El Paso, scattering over a large portion of the United 
States, engaging mostly in railroad work. The Mexi- 
can government, however, reported the number at 
about six thousand, and has been very busily engaged 
trying to discourage this emigration, continuously 
giving out, while I was in the country, that no work 
could be obtained at El Paso, and teUing stories of 
great suffering among the Mexicans there. These re- 
ports, however, did not deter them, because they had 
no remunerative work at home, and they certainly 
could not be influenced, in view, of their condition 
at home, when told of suffering abroad. 

The government, the owners of haciendas, and the 
employers of large numbers of laborers are very much 
exercised over this emigration, as affecting their imme- 
diate plans; and I saw evidences of it, in large tracts 
of land, formerly in cultivation, but gone and going 
back to a wild state by reason of lack of laborers to 
till the ground. The land-owner, however, will not 
raise the wages, nor put in modern machinery, or other- 
wise improve his facihties to do the work, with the 
result that the haciendas will eventually become un- / 
profitable; but already this has happened, in some ' 
instances, and these large tracts of land are on the 
market to foreigners, who are buying them in bliss- 



62 MEXICO. 



ful ignorance of prevailing or approaching conditions. 
With a change of ownership, a partial change of con- 
dition will follow; but the natural difficulties are so 
great, that a revolution in methods can never be looked 
for. 

To illustrate: Land that has been eight months 
without rain cannot be plowed until moistened by 
rain again; and, when this occurs, the farmer must 
act very quickly in plowing and planting, before the 
rains become too frequent or too heavy. This applies 
to the crop of corn and other grains planted on non- 
irrigated ground the latter part of June or first of July, 
as the rainy season begins the latter part of June, I 
was told. 

The sowing of wheat is under more favorable cir- 
cumstances, because that requires irrigation, and the 
farmer has some choice as to time and conditions. 

I saw but one steam plow, and that was in operation 
near Aguas Calientes; also a few steel plows, as com- 
monly used in the United States, at stores for sale; 
but all others were the old wooden plows, made of a 
crooked stick, with metalHc point, one handle and a 
wooden beam, drawn at snail pace by oxen. 

Wheat is still, almost everywhere, cut by hand with 
a sickle; and, in yet a very few places is trodden out 
by oxen on a stone floor, although modern threshers 
are now generally in use. 

Circular threshing-floors, thirty or forty feet in 
diameter, paved with stones closely fitted together 
and surrounded by a wall or curb of cut stones on end 
about three feet in height, are to be seen. I regarded 
these with great .curiosity, as they seemed to carry 
me back several thousand years in the world's history; 



INDUSTRIAL. 63 



but I thought how much better this was than the 
flail with which I used to have to pound out buck- 
wheat. 

On leaving the country, toward the latter part of 
February, I saw some wheat cut and in shock. Four 
months afterward, in the latter part of June, I saw 
wheat just coming up in Manitoba. Granting that 
the crop in Manitoba would be ripe and cut the latter 
part of September, this would make the wheat harvest 
in North America from the City of Mexico, its most 
southerly point, to Winnipeg, its most northerly, about 
seven months long. 



CHAPTER III. 
COMMERCIAL. 

I cannot give a comprehensive view of Mexico with- 
out saying something about its transportation facih- 
ties, because, now, the great railway Hnes, in the de- 
scription of a country, are more important than the 
great rivers, as a determining factor in the country's 
development, in controlling the direction of trade. 
Before the construction of railways, the navigable 
rivers determined very largely the course of trade and 
the country's development, but they have now re- 
signed that control in favor of the railways, which 
are altogether comparable with the blood-vessels of 
the human body, carrying, relaying and recarrying 
that which is the life, or which gives life, in both cases. 
Those, desiring to give their imaginations more range 
than my purpose will permit, may find pleasure in 
dissecting the circulatory system of commerce, find- 
ing here the heart, with its double function, supply- 
ing the body generally for life, the lungs for purifi- 
cation, not forgetting the portal system for keeping 
up the supply, following the lines of the arteries, their 
branches, the capillaries, and returning to the center 
along the veins ; but my purpose will be subserved by 
calling attention to the main channels only. 

El Paso, Eagle Pass and Laredo, all on the Rio 
Grande, are the present gateways from the north; 

[64] 



COMMERCIAL. 65 



and Brownsville, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, will 
doubtless, also, be a gateway later. The extension 
of a branch Hne entering from the United States and 
intended to skirt the west coast south and reach 
eventually as far as the City of Mexico, is now in prog- 
ress; but, as the natural difficulties of the country 
are very great, its completion may be long delayed. 
The objective point of all lines from the north is the 
City of Mexico, which has two lines to Vera Cruz and 
one to Tampico, the two principal ports on the east 
coast. From the city, connection is made with the 
Tehuantepec line across the isthmus, connecting 
Coatzacoalcos on the east coast with Salina Cruz on 
the west coast; the latter being the only port on the 
west coast with railway connection to the city, and 
that is indirect. Lines are in progress to other ports 
on the west coast, but their completion is not yet in 
sight. Along the lines mentioned is now pulsating 
the trade of the country. 

Stage fines, for the transportation of persons and 
the mails, are operated from the railroads to a few of 
the outlying districts, and I had the pleasure of riding 
more than one hundred miles in an old rockaway 
coach, such as was used in the eastern part of the 
United Stat ^ in the old turnpike days; although this 
is not the usual style of coach now in use in Mexico, 
but one of lighter and cheaper construction. This 
ride was a pleasure indeed, and I do not know how 
to impress that fact upon one who has never ridden 
all night and all day, without intermission, in a stage- 
coach, drawn on the run, over rough roads; and then 
also think of the gratification of having the experi- 
ence and enjoying the luxuries of a century ago! I 



66 MEXICO. 



do not like the disposition of the present time, which 
finds only an objection, a kick, in everything, against 
the past, the present and the future ahke, thus ex- 
hibiting unmistakable ignorance, while pretending to 
be cultivated and experienced. To travel to the ut- 
most ends of the earth is a great pleasure, but to be 
carried backward a century, a real enjoyment. 

Those who go to Mexico, and follow only the usual 
lines of travel by rail, ought not to flatter themselves 
that they have seen the country or the people. 

Riding a burro comes next, as a general means of 
travel, because horses are scarce, and the mules are 
mostly used for stages and carts. 

Next, and, lastly, you can walk, and walking is a 
great means of transportation in Mexico, journeys of 
more than one hundred miles on foot, by men, women 
and children, being very common. A boy of twelve 
years, from whom I bought some curios at Irapuato, 
told me he had walked in from the country a distance 
of eighty-five miles, and carried his basket of mer- 
chandise. 

How would you like, my little man, to carry a basket 
of eggs to town for your mother, a distance of a mile, 
and bring back the worth of them in sugar? No, no; 
you would want, if not an automobile, at least a 
fast horse and a rubber-tired, and would feel your- 
self disgraced, yes, disgraced, with a less pretentious 
turnout, all to market a basket of eggs! 

I see people in my own town, and I am told they 
now exist everywhere, who have mortgaged all they 
have to buy an automobile, which I see them daily 
drive up to a little hole-in-the-wall variously called a 
restaurant; lunchroom, chophouse, or other like in- 



COMMERCIAL. 67 



appetizing name, go in, perch themselves upon a 
stool, eat a fifteen-cent meal, have it charged to them, 
go out, get into their machine, and drive off a-spin- 
ning and a-tooting, streamers (veils) a-flying, and 
smiling or dignified countenances, according to the 
temper of the individuals, which seem to say to us 
poor pedestrians, as we flee from being crushed be- 
fore them: "This town is mine, but I permit you to 
stay here to furnish me excitement in trying to run 
over you." 

Automobiles are very scarce in Mexico, except in 
the City of Mexico, where I found a great many, as 
seems to be the case now in all great cities ; and, not- 
withstanding many restrictions placed by law upon 
the manner of running them, the public is nowhere 
safe against their unlawful operation. 

The State of Kansas has very salutary laws on the 
subject, which are just and equitable to both the 
owners of automobiles and the public ; but the trouble 
here, as elsewhere, seems to be in the enforcement. 
An exception, however, is made in favor of pohticians ; 
section 413, of the General Statutes of Kansas of 1907, 
after defining an automobile, provides: 

Nothing in this section shall be construed as in any 
way preventing, obstructing, impeding, embarrass- 
ing or in any manner or form infringing upon the pre- 
rogative of any poHtical chauffeur to run an automo- 
biUous band-wagon at any rate he sees fit compatible 
with the safety of the occupants thereof: Provided, 
however, That not less than ten nor more than twenty 
ropes be allowed at all times to trail behind this vehi- 
cle when in motion, in order to permit those who have 
been so fortunate as to escape with their political lives 
an opportunity to be dragged to death: And 'pro- 



68 MEXICO. 



vided further, That whenever a mangled and bleed- 
ing political corpse implores for mercy, the driver of 
the vehicle shall, in accordance with the provisions 
of this bill, "Throw out the life-line." 

F But walking has always been a great means of 
transportation ; and, while not always the most fashion- 
able, will yet always maintain its footing as against 
any innovations. In one of my drives over the coun- 
try, I met 250 or 300 able-bodied men, marching 
double file, about an equal number in each line, the 
leader of one line having a banner displaying a picture 
of the Virgin, and the banner of the companion line 
with a picture of some apostle or saint, on a journey 
of about eight hundred miles to find work, each man 
having for his bed a single blanket, a sack or bundle 
of provisions, a gourd of water, — a true army, an in- 
dustrial army, marching and camping day and night 
until they reach their destination. These men had 
little or no money, but were making heroic efforts to 
get to where they could find work at remunerative 
wages. 

I have had occasion to speak of this when writing 
about industrial conditions. 

The products of the country are brought to market 
or to the railroad for shipment a surprisingly long dis- 
tance in some instances. At Zacatecas I asked a 
man, just arrived with a burro train loaded with char- 
coal, how far he had come, and he said ninety miles. 
Immense two-wheeled carts, drawn generally by six 
or eight mules, but occasionally by oxen, are the only 
vehicles in use for this purpose. 

We are almost safe in saying that there is nothing 
not packed on the backs of burros. I even saw a 



COMMERCIAL. 69 



house torn down, and packed off piece by piece on the 
backs of these poor creatures; and one frequently 
sees corn-fodder or hay packed upon them so as to 
obscure them entirely on a side view, producing the 
appearance of moving stacks. 

Steamers occasionally touch on the west coast ; and, 
while I was in the country, one landed at a port with 
about six hundred Japanese to work on the extension 
of a railway to connect with another extension from 
the city, but I was told all these Japanese, instead 
of going to work, had left for the interior; and, while 
I cannot vouch for the truth of the report, yet I know 
all of a sudden the country was full of Japanese work- 
ing their way mostly toward the United States, hoping 
to swim the Rio Grande at El Paso; and, I think, 
they did, because, on arriving at El Paso a few weeks 
later, that town was overrun with them, and con- 
tractors for railway laborers in the United States were 
shipping them out by the carload. 

The east coast, particularly Vera Cruz and Tampico, 
has regular vessels plying between there and various 
ports in the United States and Europe. 

So much for transportation in Mexico, both by land 
and sea. 

Formerly almost all railroad employes in Mexico, 
except track laborers, were from the United States; 
but this condition is slowly changing, and we now 
find a few engineers, many firemen, a few conductors 
and many brakemen, of the native people, from which 
we easily see that the proportion must increase. Sec- 
tion foremen were also formerly from the United 
States, but now they are all natives, as well as a few 



70 MEXICO, 



road masters. The station agents are now mostly 
natives, and the clerical work, in the general offices 
in particular, is done almost entirely by natives. One 
can, therefore, see that only time is now required to 
furnish the necessary education and experience on 
the part of the natives to put the entire work of oper- 
ating their railroads in their own hands, which will 
mark a very important step in their advancement, 
and local self-control and government. 

The same miserably poor freight service under which 
the people in the United States have been suffering 
for the past two or three years is what we find in Mexico, 
and the same excuse is there given as here, lack of 
freight cars, car famine, as railroad people say; but 
I think we would find there, as I am sure of conditions 
here, that the trouble arises mostly from lack of loco- 
motives, locomotive famine, first, and, second, lack of 
ability, brain famine, on the part of the men trying to 
run our railroads. 

From personal and continuous observation, made 
during all the time this alleged car faniine is said to 
have existed, I am sure, and I take no chances in 
asserting, that no serious and long-continued car or 
locomotive famine has existed ; but I am not so posi- 
tive about the brain famine. 

In the fall of 1904, all at once, and all over the 
country, a great cry went up from the railroads that 
they could not move the traffic on account of a short- 
age of cars; and cars, as I myself observed, actually 
did disappear from terminal stations and the yards in 
the large cities; but, where did they go to, what had 
become of them? I naturally asked. They had not 
been eaten up, or consumed in the famine, as this 



COMMERCIAL. 71 



was not that kind of famine; but I kept looking, and 
later I discovered the side-tracks at little and out-of- 
the-way stations filled with empty freight cars, stored 
away for safe-keeping. 

This explains the immediate car famine, which was 
forced into existence at that time; but, manifestly, 
this condition could not last long; and these cars 
were again put in service; but with the restriction 
that they should be moved slowly, which was effected 
through the influence of many minor procrastinations ; 
but chiefly, and, in some places, solely, by overloading 
the engines, in order to make a great showing of ton- 
nage hauled, imtil intervals, as I personally myself 
know, of one to two months were required to move 
cars less than one hundred miles, and where, indeed, 
they stood loaded at the initial station more than a 
month before getting started. 

Why should this have been done? This question 
cannot be answered on the ground of sense; it must, 
therefore, be answered on the ground of a lack of sense ; 
and finds its full solution in the brain famine before 
referred to. 

The alleged car shortage is, also, due, in a very 
great degree, to the large number of bad-order freight 
cars, for so long existing and constantly increasing, 
which the railroad companies are making little or no 
effort to repair and place back in service. 

At the present time (September, 1907), I know that 
one-seventh of the whole number of cars, owned by a 
certain railroad company, are in bad order, and out 
of service ; and that the company, so far from making 
an effort to speedily repair them, is not making more 



72 MEXICO. 



than a pretense toward keeping up repairs on those 
actually in service. 

Not only are the tracks at repair stations full of 
bad-order cars, but the sidetracks at all stations, for 
many miles in every direction therefrom, are, also, 
crowded with them, awaiting their turn, thus hamper- 
ing the transaction of business at those stations, as 
well as greatly delaying the movement of trains on 
the road. 

If this can be said to be business at all, it certainly 
must be called poor business. 

Errors are great in proportion as the enterprise is 
great. We must not imagine that, because great skill 
is required, great skill is forthcoming. A multitude 
is the expression of less wisdom than an individual. 

The rules of criticism, however, demand that I 
should offer some more specific explanation for the 
existence of this untoward condition than merely a 
lack of sense; but I know of none, and will venture 
none, except what may be inferred from results ; and, 
if these results were the end aimed at, then I am 
giving the correct solution; otherwise not, in which 
event the contrary of my statement would be true, 
that the results were not the end aimed at; but, in 
either case, whether or whether not, the results were 
satisfactory; because the then generally existing de- 
mand for a reduction of freight rates was silenced, as 
the business world, in order to fulfill its engagements, 
was glad to obtain its freight at all, without respect to 
the charges; and the railroad companies, pretending 
to be in desperate straits, not their own doing, and 
from which they were alike pretending that they were 
making heroic efforts to extricate themselves, that the 



COMMERCIAL. 73 



people, actually pitying them, withdrew, for a time, 
all demands and objections. 

This imposition was, however, short-lived; indi- 
viduals became cognizant of the fact; the newspapers 
gave it publicity ; the Interstate Commerce Commission 
investigated ; and the fraud was exposed. 

The railroad companies, far from gaining, have not 
only lost very largely in earnings, but have also fore- 
gone what little public confidence they then called 
their own. 

Another phase of this situation deserves to be spe- 
cifically mentioned, not only because equally appli- 
cable to the railroads of Mexico and the United States, 
but because it is conclusive of the truth of the con- 
tention that the demoralized state of railroad traffic 
is the railroad companies' own doing : 

Why have all the railroad companies in the country 
allowed their roadbeds and tracks to deteriorate, and 
become dilapidated for want of even ordinary repairs, 
and otherwise dangerous to the extent of being little 
less than murderous, which is not too strong a state- 
ment in view of the large number of people killed by 
reason of bad track? 

This question cannot be ignored any more than the 
answer can be evaded. The railroads have answered 
that they could not obtain the necessary laborers for 
the work. This is not true, and everybody knows it; 
and what everybody knows need not be dwelt upon. 

But, what has happened? is another question, and 
requires a specific answer : Railroad companies, while 
overpaying some kinds of labor, always have under- 
paid track laborers; and, not only this, but have un- 
fairly treated them besides. I introduce the scale 



74 MEXICO. 



of wages as proof on that point; and, on the point of 
treatment, I only refer the intelligent to what they 
know, as constituting the most convincing proof; 
and, with this, I drop the subject, because I have no 
desire to try to convince the unintelligent, those who 
do not know, and those who desire an explanation for 
everything, or an argument in support of the most 
obvious propositions. 

The railroad companies have thus driven off the 
track laborer; and they could yet get him back, if 
they wanted him ; but they do not seem to want him. 

For some unreason, also, at which I could only 
guess, the railroad companies are not now trying to 
operate their lines. 

General denials are now in order, as they are allow- 
able, both in law and in business, and the practice in 
either permits them to be sworn to. 

General Denial is a new railroad office recently 
created, standing immediately above the office of 
General Manager, with unlimited and unqualified au- 
thority and jurisdiction, reporting, however, as a mat- 
ter of form, to the President and the Board of Di- 
rectors jointly, but from neither of whom he takes 
instructions. 

For the benefit of those of a classical turn, I will 
compare him (General Denial) to hundred-tongued 
Fame, who, whenever occasion arose, set his hundred 
mouths working, proclaiming far and wide whatever 
was handed him, whether good or bad. 

I see a statement in Poor's Manual, that, for 1906, 
the increase in freight tonnage per mile was about 
four percent in excess of the freight-car increase. 
Now, four percent is a small increase in a growing 



COMMERCIAL. 75 



business, such as transportation in the United States, 
and must certainly be much less than the average 
increase accompanying the general development of 
the country. 

As elsewhere stated, but which cannot be repeated 
too often or too loudly, the poor, dangerous and crimi- 
nal condition of the railroad tracks is the great and 
chief cause of the failure of the companies to handle 
their business ; and next comes the poor condition of 
their rolling-stock, first, of cars, then, of engines, fol- 
lowed by improper methods of operation, instituted 
as schemes, which always means incompetent manage- 
ments under too great a pressure for results from the 
financial heads of the concerns. 

Under a similar stress of conditions and circum- 
stances, every venture must prove a failure; and, the 
railroad affairs of the country are now only furnish- 
ing an exemplification of a general truth, instead of 
presenting an anomalous or untoward condition. 

The whole railroad situation of to-day may be justly 
compared with a structure whose foundations have 
become sapped by percolating waters, whose walls 
have, hence, become cracked, tottering and danger- 
ous, whose landlord has plastered the crevices to hide 
them from the lessees, who, in their turn, have painted 
over the whole structure, and are endeavoring to sub- 
let to other tenants. 

During the depressed state of business generally in 
the United States from about 1889 to 1897, the rail- 
roads suffered, perhaps, more than any other of the 
great enterprises. What is always and everywhere 
true, that conditions make or unmake men, happened 
here: Great financiers, equal to the conditions, arose. 



76 MEXICO. 



because conditions had not then become superhuman; 
men of great activity, skill and foresight, the product 
of conditions, also, were personally in the field, manag- 
ing the active affairs ; and men, faithful to their duty, 
filling the ranks of the great army of employes. A 
powerful organization, under such auspices, could 
scarcely fail of victory. 

How different have been conditions from 1897 to 
1907! An unforeseen prosperity arose, due to un- 
precedentedly long-continued favorable climatic con- 
ditions and good crops, accompanied by the reaction 
from the preceding depression, due partially to the 
elasticity of the times, but most largely to the great 
and efficient work of the men of that disastrous period. 

The battle, being now almost won, upstarts, hke 
Napoleon, near the close of the great French Revo- 
lution, rushed in to claim credit for the victory, and 
obtain an unjust share in the honors; and, like the 
coup of Napoleon, succeeded in their designs; and, 
hke Napoleon again, instituted a destructive pohcy, 
which, while silencing all opposition, as was designed, 
wrought the destruction of the enterprise, as Napoleon 
had ruined France; and, as Napoleon had his Water- 
loo, the same utter destruction is now only waiting 
its appointed time, in the collapse of these schemes. 

A body, natural or artificial, expanded beyond the 
reaction of its own elasticity, must collapse, because 
the power to return to the normal is lost. The mind, 
and its product, ideas, are under the dominion of the 
same law. 

With the present state of business, when railroad 
companies have more traffic offered to them than they 
can carry, or that they make any attempt, or are 



COMMERCIAL. 77 



solicitous, to carry, they must, perforce, make more 
than operating expenses ; but, in the present condition 
of the money market, which must be long-continued, 
those roads required to raise large sums of money to 
meet accruing indebtedness, such as the refunding of 
bonds, will be unable to secure the necessary amount, 
either by direct loan or by substitution, and must, 
therefore, be forced into the hands of receivers. 

The present year marks the beginning of the time 
when the States, through their Boards of Railroad 
Commissioners, have taken in hand the direction of 
affairs as to the manner in which railroad tracks shall 
be maintained; but this has been done only after 
years of demorahzation, and at the cost of many in- 
juries and the loss of many lives. 

While the course hitherto pursued by railroad com- 
panies in track maintenance has been insisted upon 
by them as proper and necessary to their existence as 
business enterprises, I cannot believe that such a 
course ever was, or ever can be, proper, or, in the long 
run, profitable, as against what would result from the 
maintenance of a well -constructed track in first-class 
condition the year round. 

Reason revolts against the proposition, as stated by 
the railroad companies, judgment reverses it, sense 
condemns it, principle disapproves it, security is ban- 
ished, rights ignored, justice outraged; and all the 
evils of humanity stalk in deadly procession in the wake 
of such a monstrosity. 

Great, long-continued and disastrous has been the 
evil; and, I think, we are coming to the remedy of 
this disease; but, before the cure is effected, think of 
how much of injury, of pain, and of death the general 



78 MEXICO. 



public are destined yet to suffer! The man who can 
expedite the time deserves to be named among the 
great benefactors of the human race ; but, while giving 
all due credit to individual efforts, we should never 
lose sight of the fact that the impetus of our amelio- 
ration is the just indignation of a long-suffering and 
outraged pubHc; and the railroad companies, in deal- 
ing with events, should consider them in relation to 
the deliberate, general, public judgment, and not refer 
them to the temporary aberrations of politicians or 
agitators, to be satisfied when they shall have found 
their price. 

The cost of construction, maintenance and operation 
of railroads in Mexico is greater than in the United 
States, which can be appreciated, without argument, 
when you are told that the country is almost without 
fuel, timber, and, 1 might say, water, except in the 
rainy season, the supply for the railroads being ob- 
tained at great expense and difficulty in most places, 
and is mostly of poor quality. All material for con- 
struction and maintenance, except the roadbed it- 
self, must be imported, as well as fuel, whether coal 
or oil, and also all equipment. Employes engaged 
in operation get the scale of wages called standard 
in the United States, on the basis of value of United 
States money; officials ordinarily get a higher rate 
of pay than in the United States; and, in the single 
item of track laborers, is the scale of wages lower than 
in the United States. These poor men, on the basis 
of money values with us, get 25 cents a day ; but this 
condition is rapidly coming to a close, as these men 
are now, and for several years last past, have been, 
coming to the United States by thousands, where 



COMMERCIAL. 79 



they receive about six times as much wages, with the 
result that Mexico is becoming depleted of laborers, 
which must eventually raise wages there. 

In Mexico, the government fixes the charges to be 
made by railroad companies, without making them 
confiscatory ; and, in the case of passenger rates, they 
are less, much less, than in the United States. Two 
classes of passenger rates and corresponding accommo- 
nations exist, the first, at 3 cents per kilometer, and 
the second, at IJ cents per kilometer. 

Now, as the value of Mexican money is only half 
that of the United States, and adjusting, also, the 
difference between a kilometer and a mile, the charge, 
on this basis, if made in the United States, would be 
2f and li cents per mile for the two classes respectively. 

Even the Pullman Company, that liberal, gracious, 
and almost eleemosynary corporation, is doing busi- 
ness on a less rate of charge than in the United States, 
although its operating expenses are greater there than 
here ; but it meets any imputation here of a reduction 
of its rates with the cry of "Confiscation!" and frowns 
its blackest frown at surrendering to a sufferer en- 
tombed in a lower berth, a few cubic feet of night air 
in the upper berth, when not occupied. 

Passenger service is hardly up to standard; but, at 
the same time, is very good in view of the difficulties 
to be overcome and the hghtness of travel, when the 
population of the country is considered. Guadalajara, 
of about 80,000 inhabitants, the second city in popula- 
tion and importance in the country, furnishes traffic for 
but one five-car train each way daily between there and 
the City of Mexico; and the only other service it has 
is one train daily on each of two short branch lines. 



80 MEXICO. 



To furnish a comparison, I will say that the city of 
Topeka, only half the size of Guadalajara, has about 
forty passenger trains daily. 

Freight rates, I was told, are about the same as in 
the United States. 

From five to ten times as many people pay the 
second-class fare as the first-class; but, reckoning at 
the lower proportion, the general average of fares 
would be If cents per mile; whereas, on the basis of 
the higher proportion, the average would be 1t\ cents 
per mile on the value of United States money. 

The railroad companies in the United States, where 
advantage, over Mexico, is had in every particular, 
with the exception of wages to track laborers, are 
resisting the reduction of passenger fares to 2 cents 
per mile, with the cry of Confiscation! But, so little 
attention is paid to the track in the United States; 
and, as this is the place, also, where reductions are 
always made to meet financial exigencies, which seem 
to be of very frequent occurrence, railroad officials 
have httle to complain of on this score. 

Frequently one man, the section foreman, is charged 
with the care of six or seven miles of track for the 
greater portion of the year; sometimes the foreman 
and one laborer; but seldom a sufficient force for its 
proper maintenance the year round. 

This is cheap maintenance, and is also criminal. 
The companies do it to make money, as they claim; 
but they do so at the expense of injuries and lives, 
which cost less, they claim, under favorable laws and 
indulgent courts, than would the proper maintenance 
of their roads; and the criminally responsible official 



COMMERCIAL. 81 



has no thought; indeed he never heard, of prosecutions 
for such crimes. 

I think, however, from appearances, that the rail- 
road companies of Mexico expend annually on their 
tracks, notwithstanding a lower scale of wages to their 
track laborers, a greater sum than the railroad com- 
panies in the United States, so that the difference be- 
tween the amounts expended for track maintenance 
is not, in reahty, in favor of Mexico. 

What I have just said about the manner of the 
maintenance of railroad tracks constituting a crime 
on the part of the officials responsible therefor, was 
written during the month of September, 1907; but, 
before this work was given to the publisher, and on 
October 7, 1907, the Interstate Commerce Commission, 
through the newspapers, made pubhc a report of ex- 
perts, who had examined the line of the Missouri 
Pacific Railway Company, declaring that the manner 
in which that company was maintaining its tracks is 
criminal. 

I am, therefore, '^scooped" in my article; and I am 
not now even the first to extend the assertion to the 
lines of many other railroad companies. 

This is a sad reminder of the futility of many of our 
best and strongest efforts. We labor incessantly to 
develop an invention, only to find, upon its com- 
pletion, that the machine is then on the market; and 
we sit up all night to give to the public the innermost 
workings of the political machine, and its detrimental 
effects upon the community, only to read, in the morn- 
ing paper, a more complete view of the situation than 
we had been able to give. 

In these days of rapid everything, I beheve the only 



82 MEXICO. 



safe course to pursue, when one finds himself possessed 
of an idea, is, in the very paroxysm, to rush for the 
newspaper office, without respect to his condition at 
the time, Hke Archimedes jumping from his bath, 
when he discovered the principle of specific gravity, 
and running naked through the streets of Syracuse, 
crying out "Eureka!'' 

Claims for personal damages against railroad com- 
panies have become a profession in the United States, 
but have little encouragement in Mexico, because 
there no right of action survives in case of death, 
which is the same status as at common law in Eng- 
land and in the United States before the enactment 
of statutes to the contrary; but we must remember 
that this rule does not exist in Mexico by reason of the 
common law, for the common law is not, and never 
was, in force there. 

In all cases, also, where the act causing injury, not 
resulting in death, was the personal or individual act 
of an employe, such as derailments by fast running, 
disobedience of orders, giving a wrong order, causing 
collisions, going to sleep on duty, the employe at fault 
is alone responsible, and not the company, in which 
instances criminal proceedings are usually brought 
against the derelict individual employe, who must 
answer before the courts for his conduct. This is 
the source of the many reports we hear of people from 
the United States imprisoned in Mexico, all of them, 
as they come to us, claiming to be unjust, probably 
unjust from our standpoint, because, in the United 
States, we are unable to convict for crimes of this 
kind, and, indeed, public sentiment is such that in- 



COMMERCIAL. 83 



dictments and prosecutions are seldom or never made, 
for the reason that convictions would be impossible, 
all of which would be entirely different, if no money 
damages were collectible. Here the rapacity for dam- 
ages, whether personal, or for the death of relatives, 
is so great that the prosecution of employes for the 
crime of which they are guilty, is not only overlooked, 
but regarded with suspicion or actually discouraged 
for fear that such prosecution might act as an element 
in the reduction of the damages which the jury, other- 
wise, might give. This is the feeling, and this the in- 
fluence in the case, although the fact is, that the oppo- 
site ought to be the logical result; because, if the 
railroad company has in its employ a person who has 
been negligent to the extent of incurring a criminal 
prosecution, the greatest damages should be allowed. 
The entire attention of the party or parties in interest 
is given up to securing money for the injury or death, 
and the amount is usually sufficient to satisfy that 
value has been received, all scores settled, and a sigh 
heaved that eventually all things are for the best; 
and a regret, when the money is all spent, is not un- 
known to be indulged, that a like disaster might not 
be unacceptable. 

This is a true story, one of those terrible truths, not 
to be believed when beyond individual experience, 
like the incredulity of the people of the tropics, when 
first told that the ocean near the poles becomes solidi- 
fied so one can walk over it; but it is true; and, if 
you do not believe it or cannot appreciate it, the fault 
is with your knowledge and experience. So long as 
this is individual feeling, what may we expect of 
corporations without feeling? 



84 MEXICO. 



Claims for stock killed in the operation of trains, 
and for fires set out by locomotives, are not paid at all, 
and such matters are not even reported to the company. 

No thoroughbred mules here, and neither is the 
breed improved by crossing with a locomotive! 

Freight claims are entertained only as matter of 
policy, so as not to discourage trade. 

In view of the state of the law, as above explained, 
the railroad companies in Mexico have no regularly 
organized claim departments. Only think of a rail- 
road company in the United States without a claim 
department ! 

I was told by an official of one railroad company 
that during the year 1906 his company had killed 961 
people, who, of course, cost nothing; and that to the 
injured for the same year, who must necessarily have 
numbered thousands, the company had paid out only 
about $15,000 damages, which amount was largely 
gratuitous. How pleasant would a showing of this 
kind be to the management of American railroads, if 
they could kill with immunity, and entertain claims 
for injuries, only if favorably disposed! 

On what kind of claims for personal injuries on the 
railroads of Mexico are damages collectible? is an in- 
teresting question, not only in view of the altogether 
different conditions existing in the United States, but 
also to people receiving injuries on the railroads in 
that country. 

The answer is, for injuries resulting from the negli- 
gence of the company, as such, aside from the indi- 
vidual acts of employes, which makes the recover- 
able cases extremely few. As before stated, in no 
case, and in no event, can a recovery be had for in- 



COMMERCIAL. 85 



juries resulting in death, so that the common saying 
with US; that it is cheaper to kill than to injure, is 
certainly the case in Mexico. 

Great is the wonder that the railroad companies 
of the United States, in their desire to be foreign to 
the jurisdictions where they operate, have not in- 
corporated in Mexico instead of in New Jersey! 

I read in a newspaper, while in the country, of a 
railroad collision in which one Rurale, riding in the 
caboose of one of the trains, was killed; and the ac- 
count ended by saying that this was the only man 
killed on that line of railroad that year, which was 
quite in contrast with the statement of the official 
who told me the number v/as 961. 

If the government should control the railroads of a 
country, it should certainly never control the news- 
papers also. 

The vast majority of the stories we have heard and 
the accounts we have read of the imprisonment, in 
Mexico, of railroad men, are fabrications. Wild West 
yarns, told for the purpose of adventure; but some of 
them are true, as must necessarily be the case from 
what has already been said about the manner in which 
the business is conducted; and few men ever have, 
or ever will, admit that they were properly convicted 
on a true charge after a fair trial. 

I will relate two instances which came within my 
own knowledge, one of an engineer who lost consider- 
able time coming up a mountain; and, on arriving 
at the top, found a message from the dispatcher ask- 
ing why he had lost so much time, to which he replied 
that by God he would give him time going down ; and 



86 MEXICO. 



he did, running so fast as to derail some of the cars 
and kill a number of people. Would any engineer 
say that this man is not rightly serving a term in the 
penitentiary ? 

The other was the case of a brakeman, who. unlaw- 
fully allowed a man to ride on his train, a freight 
train, on which no passengers are allowed to ride in 
Mexico, a very salutary arrangement, receiving for 
the passage the customary twenty-five cents; and, 
on approaching his destination, the brakeman told 
him to jump off before reaching the station, else he 
would be arrested, which, in doing, he was killed. 
The brakeman was put in jail. I leave the justice 
of this case to the decision of the brakemen. 

I was the victim myself of a silly report, published 
in the papers during my stay in Mexico, that I had been 
arrested by order of the government, and lodged in 
jail, to be held as surety or hostage for the payment 
of some claims of a railroad nature, which were the 
object of my trip to the country. While this report 
was started by the little meanness of a less individual 
acting in his least capacity; and, as no information, 
at the time of its publication, of either its truth or 
falsity, had been received or was obtainable, because, 
at that time, I was about one hundred miles from 
railroad or other communication with the outside 
world, yet that fact, doubtless, as well as the generally 
accepted idea about Mexican imprisonments, was 
sufficient to give it the usual currency, which has 
caused me considerable annoyance and twitting by 
my friends. The matter went, however, far beyond 
the point where it was pleasant, or could be regarded 
as a joke, because, being absent for a few days from 



COMMERCIAL. 87 



communication, and not being heard from, the im- 
prisonment report in the United States gave way to 
one in Mexico that I had been murdered. 

We have heard much lately about government 
ownership of railroads in Mexico ; and, our informants 
assuming that a step in the right direction is the ac- 
complishment of the journey, have spoken very freely 
about the benefits accruing to the people, most of 
which is without proper foundation on fact, and the 
remainder purely imaginary ; but this talk is not with- 
out its advantage, as it, also, is a step in the right di- 
rection of furnishing, by agitation, that impetus so 
necessary to the formulation and accomplishment of 
government designs. 

Only a small portion of the railroad mileage in Mexico 
is owned outright by the government; only a very 
small mileage exists in which the government has no 
ownership; and, in the large majority between these 
extremes, the government owns only the controlling 
interest in the stock of the various corporations, which 
have recently been consolidated into one central, hold- 
ing or trust company, as we would say, so that the 
government may control all the railway corporations 
through the corporation of its own creation. 

This is the creation of a trust on the most magnifi- 
cent scale, and with all the power of the government 
behind it. The result will be good, if the people's 
interests are subserved, and bad, otherwise; but we 
cannot assume that the government would be sub- 
serving the people's interests by oppressing or de- 
stroying the railroads, and thereby furnish us another 
example of killing the hen that daily lays the golden 



88 MEXICO. 



egg, and finding in her, not a mass of gold, but only 
what is in other hens. 

The government does not at all operate, and does 
not in fact own, the railroads in Mexico, the operation 
being carried on by officials elected or appointed in 
much the same manner as in the United States, and 
the government interest, in most cases, being limited 
to the ownership of a majority of the stock, so as to 
give it control. This plan, at once, guards against 
private rapacity and government incompetency in the 
handling of the railroad property of the country, and 
makes a well-balanced movement in its affairs, indi- 
viduals being thus prevented from monopoHzing and 
discriminating, and the government from squander- 
ing; and the minority stock, as well as the bonds of 
the companies, affords a sure and remunerative in- 
vestment for individual investment, large or small. 

How different has it been, and is it now, with us! 
Here, a railroad company incorporates under an alias, 
because it does not mean that that shall be its name 
at its christening. "Give us money," or "Give us 
money, and we will give you stock or bonds," it says 
to the community; "Give us the right of way," it 
says to the land-owner ; and, to the cities and towns, 
"Vacate your streets and alleys;" all of which is done. 
Huge representations are held out, and promises faith- 
fully received, only to learn later that they were 
fraudulently given. A receivership, like death, viewed 
with complacency and not terror in this instance, 
ends all; and the immortal corporation is resurrected 
under a new name and with a new power, leaving 
nothing dead but its debts. If, by chance, any of 
its grave-clothes have stuck to it in its hasty flight 



COMMERCIAL. 89 



from the tomb, all it has to do is to die again, and 
thus you see we have a true modern metempsychosis, 
renovating and regenerating the corporation until it 
has become pure fii'e. 

Question: What is then left to the people? 

Avswer: To be burned by it. 

The ways of gods and men have been the same in 
all ages. 

Very often, too, when the railroad has been built 
many years, after it has secured a good and paying 
business, controUing not only its own affairs, but, 
also, by threats and intimidations, rather annihi- 
lating than encouraging, the private enterprises of 
the country, which, if they exist at all, must be by its 
favor or graciousness, the company enters the field 
of poHtics, and, by unfair and unscrupulous, op- 
pressive and tyrannical means. is governing, or, rather, 
managing, us, allowing us, indeed, to retain the me- 
chanical privilege of voting, but denying us the right 
to select the candidate, so that, in reahty, while we 
cast a vote, we cast no influence in the event of the 
election; after all this, and more, we are handed a 
proposition, through the daily press, that the com- 
pany desires to acquire land in our town for the pur- 
pose of making large extensions to its shops and in- 
dustries, and wants us, the people, to pay for it by 
the issue of bonds, because we have no ready money, 
and, at the same time, intimating that if we, the peo- 
ple, do not do so, it, the railroad company, will move 

all its shops and industries from our town to E , 

where the people are clamoring for them ; and we, the 
people, succumb under the pressure,, only to realize 
in time that the railroad company, so far from making 



90 MEXICO. 



extensions and employing more men, as it promised, 
has, in fact, only rebuilt its old and wornout shops, 
and replaced its antiquated facilities and instrumen- 
talities with the most modern and approved appli- 
ances, so that now it performs the same amount of 
work as before, and no more, with a less number of 
employes; and we, the people, instead of improving 
our town by an increase in population and trade, have 
parted with our money, or what is the same thing, 
have bonded ourselves to our own detriment, losing 
not only in money and credit, but also in the popu- 
lation and trade of our town as well. 

But I must drop this part of the story, else I fear I 
shall become so specific that someone may be able to 
pick out an exact example, which might make the 
affair entirely too personal, because we are not yet 
sure, after all this, that this railroad company does 
not have a punishment in mind for us, if we do not 
submit quietly. 

The control of transportation in the United States 
by government ownership of the properties would be 
the most difficult and expensive way of arriving at 
the result, as a new department of government would 
have to be created to handle it, which would neces- 
sarily have to be so extended that it would bear eventu- 
ally an undue proportion, if not entirely control the 
government itself; and, instead of mitigating the evil, 
we would be overwhelmed by it. 

In the present state of politics, also, government 
enterprises are undesirable. The Union Pacific Rail- 
road was completed in 1869; in 1893, New York stock- 
gamblers threw it into the hands of receivers in a base 



COMMERCIAL. 91 



attempt to extinguish the government's interests, and 
to rob the people, which, of course, is always legiti- 
mate in the eyes of stock-jobbers and politicians; 
and, what shows a still greater moral turpitude, these 
very leading citizens, when they fail in their attempts, 
die martyrs to themselves, blatting to the world how 
they had given their lives to the people, and this is 
now their reward ! 

When they succeed, however, as did a Chicago 
grocer, whose case I am personally famiUar with, who 
turned traitor to his party because he could not domi- 
nate it, and received, as his share of the spoils, a di- 
rectorship in the Union Pacific Railway Company, 
in the interest, or, rather to the prejudice, of the gov- 
ernment, which, at that time, still owned stock in that 
company, the situation is somewhat different. Until 
this time, this grocery house had been in either financial 
straits or short of money; but, after this, it emerged 
from all financial troubles, and its owner, in addition, 
built a castle on the Lake Front. When this erstwhile 
grocer, then railroad director, lost out, as lose he must, 
on change of parties in power, which soon came again, 
and he was down and out, even with the enemy, which 
always happens to a traitor, he had the effrontery to 
try to turn philosopher, and exercise a general con- 
trol over the minds of men by his writings, not then 
appreciating what he has since learned, that he is an 
object of the contempt of all mankind, and that false- 
hood, from the mouth of an enemy, is more accept- 
able than truth. 

Everybody remembers about this Union Pacific re- 
ceivership ; how that the company was not in f aiUng 
circumstances, and that the fraud and crime of the 



92 MEXICO. 



Gould interests were responsible for it in an attempt 
to rob the people of their share ; and that, in the wind- 
up, the property sold for enough to pay all claims and 
indebtedness; that this road has been a great money- 
maker ever since ; that it always was a good property ; 
and that, under any sort of decent management, it 
always will be. 

So great was the pubhc loot that all officers and 
representatives of the people in Congress assembled, 
to use the dignified phrase, actually lost sight of the 
pubhc character of the Union Pacific, treating it en- 
tirely as a business enterprise for their own personal 
gain ; and all will remember how prominent the figures 
329 were in one of our political campaigns, but which 
were ineffectual as against brazen-faced political rob- 
bery. 

The failure of the government in this railroad en- 
terprise by reason of the prevalence of, and frequent 
hold-ups by, many and large gangs of both private 
and political highwaymen, should furnish no argu- 
ment that the people should continue, without re- 
sistance, to submit to outrages. 

I now propose to show how, without ownership in 
fact, or control in general, and without the enactment 
of general laws regulating charges, which have such a 
long and devious run in the courts, the government 
can still control transportation in the United States: 

By purchasing a controlling interest in the stock of 
a single fine of railroad between New York city and 
Chicago, so that the government can make its own 
schedule of rates, and then make and enforce them, 
that part of the country has secured the necessary re- 
lief. This is easy and inexpensive. 



COMMERCIAL. 93 



If rates from Mississippi river points to the Pacific 
are unjust, and the service unsatisfactory, the gov- 
ernment should, likewise, purchase a controlUng in- 
terest in the stock of one of the through lines, reduce 
the rates, and improve the service. This is, also, easy 
and inexpensive. 

If the stock-jobbers in New York city, who now 
run all the railroads in the United States, do not take 
warning, and the rates to the Gulf remain excessive 
and the service poor, the government can purchase 
a controlling interest in the stock of a railroad from 
the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and proceed to the same 
end. 

In like manner should the government come in to 
reheve the coal situation, which can be done by con- 
demning sufficient coal lands, if they cannot be pur- 
chased at a reasonable price, and mining and market- 
ing sufficient coal to control the market at just and 
fair prices. This will give the remedy, and no general 
ownership of all the coal in the United States, but 
only an extremely small portion of it, need be con- 
templated. 

The oil situation has become very acute, and greater 
expenditure and difficulty would be required to break 
the back of that monster, because it would not respond 
to more gentle treatment; but it can be done in this 
manner. 

At present we are laboring under immense difficulty ; 
we have allowed things to go on from bad to worse, until 
the people have been crowded out, and heroic means 
will be required to reinstate them; but, in our at- 
tempts to regain the ascendency, we are using methods 
which only heap more losses on the people, and do 



94 MEXICO. 



our antagonists no harm. Members of the Chicago 
Beef Combine were heavily fined for maintaining a 
trust, but they still maintain prices by agreement, 
higher now than before the prosecution, so that the 
people have paid the fines, not once, but many times 
over. Great is the praise which should immortahze 
the poUticians who brought about this victory! Rail- 
road companies have been fined enormous sums for 
rate discriminations; but freight rates have been ad- 
vanced to cover these fines, so that the people have 
paid them, are paying them, and will continue to pay 
them, many times over. In the lifetime of the men 
who brought the people this victory, great statues 
should be erected to them, that they might be able 
to see their own glory! The Standard Oil Company 
has been fined a small sum in proportion to its pubHc 
extortions, yet the people are nightly, in the flicker 
of their lamps, laying by a fund for that company 
anent the day of payment. 

By a system of control, by competition, on the part 
of the government, the whole situation could be easily 
handled at a comparatively small expense, as com- 
pared with the total value of all the railroad property 
in the United States. 

Above everything, these should be business under- 
takings on the part of the government, so that a 
profit of five or six percent, on a fair value of the prop- 
erty, would accrue to those having invested in the 
enterprise, as well as to the government itself. This 
would bring other railroads down to the same basis, 
to a fair income on a fair value, with the property 
economically managed. 

Such a system as this should be removed as far as 



COMMERCIAL. 95 



possible from the vehemence of party politics; it 
should know no party, and be subject to no vicissi- 
tudes on the change of party in power. All positions, 
whether of officers or employes, should be for life, or 
during competency and good behavior. 

The property of a country, as far as possible, should 
always be owned by its citizens; and, where the gov- 
ernment must interfere on account of individual ra- 
pacity, stop should be made at the instant of control. 
Such great enterprises as the railway systems of a 
country ought always, as far as possible, be open to 
individual investment, which seems to be now entirely 
lost to the people, and concentrated into the hands 
of the stock-jobbers in New York city, to the extent 
that half a dozen people now control all the railroads 
in the country. This has been brought about by dis- 
honest means and unfair practices, resulting in forc- 
ing out at a loss, either by compulsion or from fear of 
losing all, those people who sought, in the stocks and 
bonds of these companies, a remunerative investment 
for their savings. 

These savings are now going into real estate, with 
the result that lands are becoming so high, as to ren- 
der agriculture, in some localities at least, unprofit- 
able, which condition is on the increase. Labor has 
turned to cultivation of the soil, and, hence, its scarcity 
in trade, industries, manufacture, and in towns and 
cities generally, is accounted for. 

If railroad securities could again be returned to the 
public as an honest, safe and remunerative field for 
investment, the tension now on land would be relieved ; 
and, if the government would secure controlling in- 
terests in a few of the great railway systems of the 



96 MEXICO. 



country for no other purpose than to give them the 
respectability of honesty, now completely lost to them, 
and of restoring confidence in their securities, so that 
people would feel safe in investing their money in 
them, a great gain would accrue to the country at 
large in this one feature alone, aside from the general 
gain to the country in fairness of rates, decency of 
management and safety of operation, all of which, at 
this time, are deplorably lacking. 

Absolute government ownership of the railroads in 
the United States, or of any other great and general 
enterprise, must result in failure, because the govern- 
ment then aggregates to itself the position of proprie- 
tor, where it should only control. Governments were 
created to control, not to own; ownership should 
always be reserved to the people, either individually 
or collectively, as persons or as corporations; and, 
only to put an end to injustice, monopolies and op- 
pressions at the hands of the rapacious, should the 
government come to the rescue. 

Competition, as an element in trade, is now only 
influential by its absence, so that we must look else- 
where for relief, or be without it ; and this applies not 
only to railroads, but to all other large and extended 
enterprises as well. 

Municipal ownership of necessary industries, where 
the people can keep a constant and close watch over 
them, would seem to be an exception to this general 
rule against governmental ownership on a large scale; 
but the exception is only seeming, as, in all propriety, 
the government should only own its own capitol and 
other buildings and instrumentalities necessary for 
the transaction of its own affairs; and its investments 



COMMERCIAL. 97 



in business enterprises should only be by force of con- 
ditions. On the same principle, towns and cities 
should own only their own public buildings, and force 
of conditions should alone impel them into municipal 
ownership ; and, I might add, that the necessary con- 
ditions, making municipal ownership desirable, seem 
now to be almost everywhere present; to wit, ex- 
cessive charges and^poorness of service on the part 
of the persons or corporations possessing the franchises. 

I want to call the attention of those who feel them- 
selves wedded to government ownership of all great 
enterprises in general, or to any individual hobby in 
particular, to the fact that banking by government, 
whenever or wherever tried, has always ended in dis- 
aster and ruin, if persisted in. 

A government should control its money, not own it. 
Ownership of the money of a country, except so much 
as is necessary to pay the expense of running the gov- 
ernment, should be in the people. Governments 
should possess nothing, except that given them by 
the people. In a well-ordered nation, the people are 
supreme, and the government only their instrument. 
Reverse affairs, and we have an instance of the in- 
strument being turned against the people. 



CHAPTER IV. 
RELIGIOUS. 

Religion is the subject of the longest chapter in 
Anthropology, a science yet alive, and, therefore, of 
the greatest concern to man, as, also, the cause of 
almost all his woe. In his efforts to extricate himself 
from his difficulties, man turns to hope, only to be 
intercepted by the priest who turns hope to profit, 
and man eventually into despondency. 

Fear is the predominating mental state of primitive 
man, and is his first religion, purely a fear of personal 
violence from his natural enemies, the burning heat 
of the equator and the freezing cold of the poles, the 
savage animals surrounding him, disputing his do- 
mains, and, above all, his more savage fellow-man. 
All these he anathematizes as inimical to himself, 
so that he first curses before he learns to pray and 
bless; and, as want is necessary to the establishment 
and appreciation of benefits, he is only now brought 
to a realization of his need of aid, first to be sought in 
his fellow-man, as companions, friends, allies, then, in 
arms, weapons, engines, and lastly, in appeals to the 
unseen, the supposed, the unknown; so, we see, the 
gods were the last development of fear, "Fear God," 
the last injunction to man. 

Religion, thus far, is a natural development from 
conditions, and, hence, natural religion; only details 

[98] 



RELIGIOUS. 99 



need now be provided for ; and these are found in the 
refinement of man, appearing as general, imder the 
dominion of universal principles, as special, under the 
force of local circumstances, as individual, in com- 
pliance with interest. 

Sacrifice is the greatest and most predominating 
universal principle of religion, sacrifice first of man, 
then of wealth, then of idea. 

Granting that the Mexicans, as all other men, passed 
orderly through the developments of natural religion, 
only to be determined, like the creation of suns and 
systems, on principles of philosophy, we stand now 
face to face with this first and greatest refinement of 
man, sacrifice. 

As, of course, I will have to depend entirely upon 
history for what follows, I might as well quote it di- 
rectly : 

Human sacrifices were adopted by the Aztecs early 
in the fourteenth century, about two hundred years 
before the Conquest. Rare at first, they became more 
frequent with the wider extent of their empire, till, 
at length, almost every festival was closed with this 
cruel abomination. These religious ceremonials were 
generally arranged in such a manner as to afford a type 
of the most prominent circumstances in the character 
or history of the deity who was the object of them. 
(Prescott's Conquest.) 

Perhaps the most important of these festivals was 
in honor of the god Tezcatlipoca, handsome and power- 
ful, the soul and creator of the world, and inferior only 
to the Supreme Being. The sacrifice for this festival 
is thus described : 

A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, dis- 
tinguished for his personal beauty, and without a 



100 MEXICO. 



blemish on his body, was selected to represent this 
deity. Certain tutors took charge of him, and in- 
structed him how to perform his new part with be- 
coming grace and dignity. He was arrayed in a splen- 
did dress, regaled with incense and with a profusion 
of sweet-scented flowers, of which the ancient Mexi- 
cans were as fond as their descendants at the present 
day. When he went abroad, he was attended by a 
train of royal pages, and, as he halted in the streets to 
play some favorite melody, the crowd prostrated them- 
selves before him, and did him homage as the repre- 
sentative of their good deity. In this way he led an 
easy, luxurious life, till within a month of his sacrifice. 
Four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the principal 
goddesses, were then selected to share the honors of 
his bed; and with them he continued to live in idle 
dalliance, feasted at the banquets of the principal 
nobles, who paid him all the honors of a divinity. 

At length the fatal day of sacrifice arrived. The 
term of his short-lived glories was at an end. He was 
stripped of his gaudy apparel, and bade adieu to the 
fair partners of his revelries. One of the royal barges 
transported him across the lake to a temple which 
rose on its margin, about a league from the city. 
Hither the inhabitants of the capital flocked to wit- 
ness the consummation of the ceremony. As the sad 
procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the un- 
happy victim threw away his gay chaplet of flowers, 
and broke in pieces the musical instruments with 
which he had solaced the hours of captivity. On the 
summit he was received by six priests, whose long and 
matted locks flowed disorderly over their sable robes, 
covered with hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import. 
They led him to the sacrificial stone, (now to be seen 
in the museum of the City of Mexico), a huge block 
of jasper, with its upper surface somewhat convex. 
[Error; should be concave, as I myself saw.] On this 
the prisoner was stretched. Five priests secured his 
head and his limbs, while the sixth, clad in a scarlet 



RELIGIOUS. lOl 



mantle, emblematic of his bloody office, dexterously 
opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp 
razor of itzth, (obsidian), a volcanic substance, hard 
as flint, and, inserting his hand in the wound, tore 
out the palpitating heart. The minister of death, 
first holding this up towards tke sun, an object of 
worship throughout Anahuac, cast it at the feet of 
the deity to whom the temple was devoted, while the 
multitudes below prostrated themselves in humble 
adoration. The tragic story of this prisoner was ex- 
pounded by the priests as the type of human destiny, 
which, brilhant in its commencement, too often closes 
in sorrow and disaster. 

Such was the form of human sacrifice usually prac- 
ticed by the Aztecs. It was the same that often met 
the indignant eyes of the Europeans, in their progress 
through the country, and from the dreadful doom of 
which they themselves were not exempt. There were, 
indeed, some occasions when preliminary tortures, of 
the most exquisite kind, with which it is unnecessary 
to shock the reader, were inflicted, but they always 
terminated with the bloody ceremony above described. 
It should be remarked, however, that such tortures 
were not the spontaneous suggestions of cruelty, as 
with the North American Indians, but were all rigor- 
ously prescribed in the Aztec ritual, and doubtless 
were often inflicted with the same compunctious visit- 
ings which a devout familiar of the Holy Office might 
at times experience in executing its stern decrees. 
Women, as well as the other sex, were sometimes re- 
served for sacrifice. On some occasions, particularly 
in seasons of drought, at the festival of the insatiable 
Tlaloc, the god of rain, children, for the most part, 
infants, were offered up. As they were borne along 
in open litters, dressed in their festal robes, and decked 
with the fresh blossoms of spring, they moved the 
hardest heart to pity, though their cries were drowned 
in the wild chant of the priests, who read in their 
tears a favorable augury for their petition. These 



102 MEXICO. 



innocent victims were generally bought by the priests 
of parents who were poor, and who stifled the voice 
of nature, probably less at the suggestions of poverty 
than of a wretched superstition. 

The most loathsome part of the story, the manner 
in which the body of the sacrificed captive was dis- 
posed of, remains yet to be told. It was delivered 
to the warrior who had taken him in battle, and by 
him, after being dressed, was served up in an enter- 
tainment to his friends. This was not the coarse 
repast of famished cannibals, but a banquet teeming 
with dehcious beverages and delicate viands, pre- 
pared with art, and attended by both sexes, who, as 
we shall hereafter see, conducted themselves with all 
the decorum of civilized hfe. (Prescott's Conquest.) 

From this most terrible, nauseating and revolting 
picture of so awful a custom, we are more than anxious 
to turn quickly away to the sublime truths and sacred 
practices of our own religion: 

And it came to pass after these things, that God did 
tempt Abraham, and said' unto him, Abraham : and 
he said. Behold, here I am. 

And he said. Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, 
whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; 
and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of 
the mountains which I will tell thee of. 

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and 
saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with 
him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the 
burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place 
of which God had told him. 

Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, 
and saw the place afar off. 

And Abraham said unto his young men, abide ye 
here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder 
and worship, and come again to you. 

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, 



RELIGIOUS. 103 



and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire 
in his hand, and a knife ; and they went both of them 
together. 

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, 
My father: and he said. Here am I, my son. And he 
said. Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the 
lamb for a burnt offering? 

And Abraham said. My son, God will provide him- 
self a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of 
them together. 

And they came to the place which God had told him 
of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the 
wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him 
on the altar upon the wood. 

And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took 
the knife to slay his son'. 

And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of 
heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said. 
Here am I. 

And he said. Lay not thine hand upon the lad, 
neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know 
that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld 
thy son, thine only son from me. 

And. Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and 
behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his 
horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and 
offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 

And Abraham called the name of that place Je- 
hovah-jireh: as it is said to this day. In the mount of 
the Lord it shall be seen. 

And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out 
out of heaven the second time, 

And said. By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, 
for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not 
withheld thy son, thine only son: 

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiply- 
ing I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, 
and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy 
seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 



104 MEXICO. 



And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be 
blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 

So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they 
rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abra- 
ham dwelt at Beer-sheba. (Genesis xxii, 1 to 18.) 

Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe 
fruits, and of thy hquors; the first born of thy sons 
shalt thou give unto me. (Exodus xxii, 29.) 

Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall 
devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, both of man 
and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be 
sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy 
unto the Lord. 

None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall 
be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death. 

(Leviticus xxvii, 28, 29.) 

And I, behold, I [the Lord speaking to Aaron] have 
taken your brethren the Levites from among the chil- 
dren of Israel : to you they are given as a gift for the 
Lord, to do the service of the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation. 

Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep 
your priests' office for every thing of the altar, and 
within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given 
your priests' office unto you as a service of gift; and 
the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 

And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also 
have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings 
of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel ; 
unto thee have I given them by reason of the anoint- 
ing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever. 

This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved 
from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every meat 
offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, 
and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall 
render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for 
thy sons. 

In the most holy place shalt thou eat it ; every male 
shall eat it : it shall be holy unto thee. 



RELIGIOUS. 105 



And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, 
with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: 
I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to 
thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every 
one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it. 

All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, 
and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which they 
shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee. 

And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they 
shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine; every one 
that is clean in thine house shall eat of it. 

Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine. 

Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, 
which they bring unto the Lord, whether it be of men 
or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn 
of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of 
unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. 

(Numbers xviii, 6 to 15.) 

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said. 
If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon 
into my hands. 

Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of 
the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in 
peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be 
the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. 

So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon 
to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them 
into his hands. 

And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come 
to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of 
the vineyards, with a very great deal of slaughter. 
Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the 
children of Israel. 

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh, unto his house, and 
behold, his daughter came out to meet him with 
timbrels and with dances ; and she was his only child ; 
beside her he had neither son nor daughter. 

And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent 
his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast 



106 MEXICO. 



brought me very low, and thou art one of them that 
trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the 
Lord, and I cannot go back. 

And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast 
opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according 
to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; for- 
asmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of 
thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. 

And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done 
for me: Let me alone two months, that I may go up 
and down upon the mountains, and bewail my vir- 
ginity, I and my fellows. 

And he said. Go. And he sent her away for two 
months: and she went with her companions, and be- 
wailed her virginity upon the mountains. 

And it came to pass at the end of two months, that 
she returned unto her father, who did with her accord- 
ing to his vow which he had vowed : and she knew no 
man. And it was a custom in Israel, 

That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament 
the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in 
a year. (Judges xi, 30 to 40.) 

In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho: 
he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, 
and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, 
according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by 
Joshua the son of Nun. [Next following.] 

(I Kings xvi, 34.) 

And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, 
Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and 
buildeth this city Jericho : He shall lay the foundation 
thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall 
he set up the gates of it. (Joshua vi, 26.) 

The Druids, our ancestors, had the same custom of 
sacrificing a human being under the foundation-stones 
of their temples; and, I believe, when the corner- 



RELIGIOUS. 107 



stone of the Kremlin was laid, a beautiful woman was 
buried alive beneath it. 

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or 
with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my 
firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body 
for the sin of my soul? (Micah vi, 7.) 

When, Pilate therefore heard that saying [that, if 
he let Jesus go, he would not be loyal to Caesar], he 
brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat 
in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the 
Hebrew, Gabbatha. 

And it was the preparation of the passover, and 
about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, 
Behold your King! 

But they cried out. Away with him, away with him, 
crucify him. Pilate saith unto them. Shall I crucify 
your King? The chief priests answered. We have no 
king but Caesar. 

Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be 
crucified. And they took Jesus and led him away. 

And he bearing his cross went forth into a place 
called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew 
Golgotha : 

Where they crucified him, and two other with him, 
on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. 

(St. John xix, 13 to 18.) 

The purpose of this sacrifice is stated thus: 

And if ye call on the Father, who without respect 
of persons judgeth according to every man's work, 
pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: 

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed 
with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your 
vain conversation received by tradition from your 
fathers ; 

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb 
without blemish and without spot: 



108 MEXICO. 



Who verily was foreordained before the foundation 
of the world; but was manifest in these last times for 
you, 

Who by him do beheve in God, that raised him up 
from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith 
and hope might be in God. 

(I Peter i, 17 to 21.) 

And thus we see that the object of all sacrifice has 
ever been to obtain good gifts from a divinity. 

The material then passed into the emblematic, but 
by some still thought real, while still others only re- 
vere it as a custom : this broken bread is my wounded 
body; this drawn wine, my shed blood; eat, drink. 

From the foregoing, the great and sad truth appears, 
that the priests introduced sacrifice, as a refinement 
upon natural rehgion; that sacrifice produced canni- 
balism; and, let me whisper it softly close to the ear, 
that that custom is still commemorated in emblem, 
symbol or form among us. 

Natural religion man always has had, and, doubt- 
less, always will have; and, in this, he finds a satis- 
faction for all the longings of the soul; but, beyond 
this, he encounters the church, that corporation, that 
trust, created to monopohze and control his life on 
earth and his hope in heaven for the benefit of its 
stockholders, the priests. 

The revolt of human feeling against such practices 
brings me to the next subdivision of my subject, the 
sacrifice of wealth. 

Religion, once established, like all human insti- 
tutions, had to be maintained by wealth, the ex- 
ponent of power. Blood had created; but once 
created, the flow of blood, in true analogy, must now 



RELIGIOUS. 109 



weaken and destroy; the priest must stanch the flow, 
or perish in the flood ; this he does by opening a sluice 
from wealth, and closing that from man ; and, in Mex- 
ico, as the world over, the blood of man is replaced by 
that of animals; and, later, by grains, fruits and 
flowers, with a residue to the priest. 

The priest must have robes, altars, temples, and, 
hence, wealth must be directly apphed, without pass- 
ing through purifying fires; and is, also, more re- 
luctantly sacrificed than man. 

The sacrifice of an idea comes last, and is most 
stubbornly surrendered. 

At this point, we find the human race debased, 
plunged in ignorance, and the chattels of the church, 
from which condition tlie Renaissance, the revival of 
learning, heathen learning, if you please, and not the 
Reformation, emancipated them. 

As a special principle of religion, under the force 
of local circumstances, I mention policy in the govern- 
ment of a state; and, as individual, in compliance 
with interest, personal aggrandizement; and, with 
this, I close the general view of religion; because the 
subject is interminable, and my book must have a 
speedy end. 

The beginning of our era was the beginning of our 
religion, dating from the birth of its founder, as we 
ordinarily say; but, if we were to speak more after 
the fact, we would say that the Christian rehgion had 
its beginning with the doctrines, the opinions, of the 
priesthood, deduced from the sayings, the teachings, 
the philosophy, attributed to Christ, whose birth was, 
by his followers, disciples, and partisans, considered 



110 MEXICO. 



of such importance, as, if not to mark the beginning 
of time, at least the beginning of a new period of com- 
putation. The almost universal method of reckoning 
time then was to begin a new era from the accession 
of a new king ; and the birth of this new King of Men, 
who was to have no coronation, except with thorns 
at his death or sacrifice, was no exception to the rule. 
That kingdom is still among us, in the dates we use. 

At the commencement of this reign, at the beginning 
of our era, Rome was the nation of political unrest 
at home, and conquest abroad; having passed her 
golden age as a nation, the ferment of dissolution was 
expanding the proportions of the body politic to cover 
the surrounding countries, hke the obesity of age 
weighing down the strength of prime, to be followed, 
as in the natural body, by that degeneration, or descend- 
ing metamorphosis, preceding dissolution. 

In the Trojan war, some of the Olympian deities 
favored and aided Greece, others Troy; and, even 
Jove and his consort were on different sides of the 
controversy; and, not only this, but the gods waged, 
among themselves, a battle over the conduct of the war. 

From that time on, the gods of nations fought with 
and for them, if kept appeased by proper reverence 
and sufficient sacrifices, until the Persian invasions 
of Europe, the Macedonian campaigns, and the con- 
quests of Rome, all prosecuted for retahation or con- 
quest, or both, when human valor became so exalted 
as to leave no place for the gods. Military chaos and 
the disorganization of society in general followed the 
decay of these great powers. In this general decUne, 
commerce, then called trade, most closely connected 
with government, suffered the same fate; manufac- 



RELIGIOUS. Ill 



tures and industries, next to be affected, naturally 
followed the destruction of the markets of the world; 
then art; then literature. 

In this general wreck, reUgion was regaining the 
place it had lost in men's minds, which, rising, in an 
inverse ratio to the fall of poHtical power, had, by the 
fifth century, reestablished dominion in political af- 
fairs, this time, that men should fight the battles of 
their gods, instead of, as in the beginning, the gods 
fighting for the cause of men. The idea of deity is on 
the decline; and the gods, once all-powerful and per- 
sonal in battle, are now impotent and emblematic. 

Religion, of which the exponent was the church, 
now dominated in the government of Europe until 
about the sixteenth century, although the first awaken- 
ing may be traced from the thirteenth ; but its power, 
though often resisted, was not overcome, until near 
the end of the eighteenth century, at the time of the 
great French Revolution, since which time the church 
has possessed a passive influence, but no potent power. 

This awakening is what the French have been pleased 
to call the Renaissance, the revival, in Europe, of the 
ancient, or heathen, literature and art, giving to poli- 
tics, in this resurrection, the same body of principles 
and laws, even, which had perished with it, and re- 
ligion and government again reverse positions. 

This last readjustment is what we are pleased to 
refer to, when we talk of the separation of church and 
state. 

The general review, here given, is necessary to a 
full understanding of the relations of government and 
religion in our time. Antagonism is that relation, in 
this, that rehgion is ever seeking the overthrow of 



112 MEXICO. 



government to substitute itself in its stead, while 
government is put to the defensive for self-preser- 
vation, without, at first, desiring or seeking to dethrone 
religion, but now carrying the conflict home to the very 
root of that institution. 

The dominion of the church in civil government has 
always produced the same results; and, as an illus- 
tration, I give the following, conceaHng both the au- 
thor and the church, as the appUcation is universal. 
This will keep the mind from indulging any national 
prejudice for the author, or partiality in his favor, by 
reason of his personality; and, also, prevent religious 
sentiment or rancor by the devotees of any particular 
religion : 

Society, after having made some few strides away 
from physical chaos, seemed in danger of falHng into 
moral chaos ; morals had sunk far below the laws, and 
religion was in deplorable contrast to morals. It was 
not laymen only who abandoned themselves with im- 
punity to every excess of violence and licentiousness; 
scandals were frequent among the clergy themselves; 
bishoprics and other ecclesiastical benefices, pubhcly 
sold or left by will, passed down through families from 
father to son, and from husband to wife, and the 
possessions of the church served for dowry to the daugh- 
ters of bishops. Absolution was at a low quotation 
in the market, and redemption for sins of the greatest 
enormity cost scarcely the price of founding a church 
or a monastery. Horror-stricken at the sight of such 
corruption in the only things they, at that time, recog- 
nized as holy, men no longer knew where to find the 
rule of life or the safeguard of conscience. 

Men forsake religion, but they can never entirely 
depart from their mythology, which shows that myths 
are older than gods. 



RELIGIOUS. 113 



The coins of Mexico are stamped with the mytho- 
logical representation of the cactus, the eagle and the 
snake, while those of the United States are impressed 
with the emblem of traditional Liberty, older than the 
gods themselves. 

In like manner, the planets first discovered and 
named took the appellations of their appropriate gods ; 
and those discovered, after the deposition of the 
Olympian deities, were forced, against a contrary 
impulse, into that nomenclature. So great is the force 
of this principle, that, should a new planet be dis- 
covered, at any time in the future, its name must come 
within the ''synod of the gods." 

This should teach us to look only for a prevalence, 
and never for a supremacy, in human affairs; that no 
system of government, religion or society will ever 
dominate the world; but that each must be confined 
to its own proper sphere; and that the universal 
brotherhood of man is but a poetic fancy. 

The Mexicans changed their rehgion as quickly and 
completely as they had been conquered, which seems 
to be the fate of all primitive people to take the re- 
ligion of their conquerors. Medieval Europe furnishes 
many instances where a treaty of peace carried a pro- 
vision that the conquered should forsake their heathen 
gods, and worship the Omnipotent, of v/hose power 
they had gotten a foretaste at the hands of His follow- 
ers; and, where whole tribes captured, and driven 
en masse to the bank of a river, were baptized at the 
point of the pike ; and, in almost all instances, whether 
from pure volition, by treaty, under pressure, or at 
the pike's point or cannon's mouth, have remained 
permanent converts to the new faith. 



114 MEXICO. 



The hands of victory are here thrown up for the 
triumph of the Christian faith; but by the ignorant 
and shortsighted, who know nothing of history and 
less of philosophy, for they imagine they know prin- 
ciples, when they admit they do not know facts. 

Mahomet and his cause made yet even more prose- 
lytes by the sword than the Christians by the pike. 
The Cross and the Crescent have been most victorious 
in the wake of the pike and the sword. 

The Olympian deities followed the conquest of the 
Greeks into Asia Minor. 

I have wondered at these conquests of religion, and 
I still wonder ; I do not understand them ; and I have 
elsewhere confessed my ignorance even of what re- 
ligion is; but, for reasons stated, my readers will 
doubtless soon inform me. 

In Mexico, the separation of church and state is 
complete in form and in fact, the church not exercising 
a single function in the governmental order of things. 

In the United States, we pretend to have a separa- 
tion of church and state, but the church still celebrates 
marriage, thus making a contract binding upon the 
state ; and, in some of the States of our Union, where 
the legal practice is regulated by an enactment code 
even, the courts, in certain cases, have recognized the 
operation of the forms of ecclesiastical procedure. 

The influence of the church, or, more largely, re- 
ligion, among us is greatest when openly advocated or 
denounced. We allow every man his own religious 
ideas, until he speaks them or condemns others, when 
we are instantly, from feeling or policy, opposed to 
him. If he has praised our religion, we condemn his 
indiscretion; but^ if he has condemned it, we are at 



RELIGIOUS. 115 



once his enemy ; and, if we have no religion of our own, 
we regard him as foolish. Religion is, therefore, seen 
to exist in our politics in a negative form ; but soon, as 
I am glad to say, and as every indication points, to be 
cast out of the equation. 

Another separation, not generally thought of, but 
of still greater moment, from both church and state, 
remains to be effected. Intellect should be untram- 
meled by the tradition of religion and the authority of 
government. Literature, the highest exemplification 
of intellect, should plead only at the bar of reason. 
Conscience, indeed, is free, but must not trangress 
the traditions of society, religion, and the law. Men 
are free to speak and write, but not to say and inscribe. 

The time for compromises should have been long 
since past, and intellect, so far from seeking excuses 
and making apologies, should be recognizing only its 
own individuality. 

Some years ago, in 1856, as I was told, and as I, also, 
read, the Mexican government confiscated all church 
property, all Catholic church property, that then being 
the only church in the country. The lands, I was 
told, were sold, but the buildings themselves are still 
held by the government, with the right of user remain- 
ing to the church, which, if it preserve, must maintain 
them, and keep them in repair, with the exception, 
however, of the cathedral in the City of Mexico, which 
is kept in repair by the government, for what reasons is 
not hard to guess, as it is one of the chief attractions 
of the city ; and thus advertisement, by whatever dip- 
lomatic name you wish to call jt, is still the leading 
policy of governments as well as of men. 



116 MEXICO. 



This confiscation naturally stopped all church ex- 
tension, as no ground can be acquired on which to 
build them, and no new churches are to be seen any- 
where. The walls of the old churches, however, often 
present the appearance of newness, because, on ac- 
count of the poorness of the material, both stone and 
mortar or cement used in their construction, they must 
be kept plastered both inside and outside ; and a coat 
of fresh plaster gives them the shining aspect of an 
old form in a new dress ; but, even this does not long 
preserve the walls, as is evidenced by the number of 
church ruins seen in the country; and soon, reckoning 
by years, only ruins of churches will exist ; because the 
people are continuously giving less of their money to 
the church, and the church has no other source of in- 
come. What goes to ruin by time is seldom rebuilt 
or replaced, but, otherwise, when destroyed by fire, 
accident or casualty. 

The belfries, domes, facades, and other portions of 
the church buildings, where a greater strength is re- 
quired than afforded by rubble, are constructed from 
cut stone, but of such poor quality as soon crumbles 
and breaks, when exposed to the weather, so that the 
more permanent portions of the buildings present the 
more ruinous aspect. 

The policy of church building has always been to 
get started, by any humble beginning, and then de- 
pend upon time and importunity on the one hand and 
wealth and vanity on the other, to complete the work. 

In Mexico, ''forty years in building" has lost all its 
grandeur of conception, as I have seen churches begun 
over a hundred years ago, and not yet, by any means, 
completedj although still in progress. These new 



RELIGIOUS. 117 



structures, on the top of walls whose supports seem 
to be in the last stage of decay, remind me so much of 
hope, which is ever building brightly over ruined and 
sinking foundations. 

A few, a very few, Protestant congregations exist in 
Mexico, but I could learn of no churches, nor, strictly 
speaking, no church organization by them, existing only 
in isolation; and, as no benefits, perquisites, emolu- 
ments or money, can ever be expected to accrue from 
a propaganda, we have the happy assurance that here 
is one place where the missionary will never beg our 
aid in proselyting, and, later, crave our protection from 
the just resentment of an outraged people. 

Yes, other gods are worshiped in Mexico, as the 
Chinese and the unspeakable Japanese are still al- 
lowed the freedom of the country, and the natives 
have not, in every instance, forsaken their ancient 
faith; but these and the metaphysical nothings now 
everywhere present, like rays of light in the scale-pan, 
add an appearance, but no weight. 

The future of the church in Mexico can be easily 
predicted: In the confiscation of all church property 
by the state, it received its deathblow ; but, like those 
cold-blooded animals, though physiologically dead, 
after the severance of their spinal cord at the base of 
the brain, still, for a long time, retain their physical 
activity, the portion farthest from the head being the 
last to die. Although the head and the body of the 
church in Mexico are still in touch, the physiological 
continuity has been severed, and its present activity is, in 
reality, post mortem ; and, in the mountains, far from the 
disturbances of the times, its last movements will cease. 



118 MEXICO. 



Among the poor of the country, you will find those 
still faithful; but the government, having repudiated 
the church, every politician curses it, if not publicly, 
at least in private. 

Nothing will destroy a church quicker than to re- 
move it from active participation, or tacit influence, in 
government and politics. 

With us, we deny the church a part in government, 
but we admit it in politics. "In God we trust," but 
we will not let Him govern us. We expect our public 
officers to be Christian, but we will not permit them to 
practice their religion upon us. We are willing that 
every man should have his own views, so long as he 
does not touch us or the faith to which some ancient 
maternal ancestor clung. We allow all men to pray, 
but we would restrain the granting. 

How long we can maintain this foolishness, we can- 
not say ; but we know the course, although we cannot 
determine its length. Opinions, like the physical life 
of the world, are of slow growth, but end by cataclysms. 
Fossils of extinct races of fishes are found embedded 
in rock, all headed in the same direction ; the mammoth 
swarmed in Europe almost until historic times; and 
the poor wild dove, the pigeon, now extinct, only thirty 
years ago, darkened our skies. I make this statement, 
after having recently made a trip through what was 
their great breeding-ground of northern United States 
and Canada, and after most diligent inquiry. 

Guadalupe, the holy city, the Mecca, the Jerusalem, 
of Mexico, is a village at the foot of the hill Totoltepec, 
at the edge of the plain, about three miles from the City 
of Mexico, and is reached by an electric line. As is 



RELIGIOUS. 119 



usual in all Mexican towns, the only building of any 
consequence is the church. The history of this shrine, 
like all systems of deception for the benefit of their 
promo tors, is definite and certain : On the night of 
July 1, 1520, Juan Rodriguez de Villafuerte, a Spanish 
soldier, with others, fleeing from defeat at the hands of 
Cuautemoc, took refuge in the temple of Otoncapulco 
on the hill of Totoltepec. This soldier had with him 
an image of the Virgin, of checkered career, brought 
from Spain, and which had, in futuro, a greater career 
in Mexico. Reaching this hill, being wounded, he 
could carry the image no farther, and hid it under a 
maguey plant, where it remained for nearly twenty 
years; but was finally discovered by Cequauhtzin, a 
native chief, called by the Spaniards Juan de Aguila 
Tobar, who had been admonished in a vision by the 
Virgin to seek for her image beneath a maguey on this 
hill. Three times did the vision appear; three times 
was the admonition given; three times the search 
made; and three times was the charm, the image 
found, and joyously carried home by Cequauhtzin; 
but to his great surprise, the next morning, had dis- 
appeared, and was again found at its original place of 
concealment. This good man took the image to his 
home again, placing before it a gourd containing eat- 
ables of the most dainty sort, hoping thus to domesti- 
cate it to his house ; but the image again betook itself 
the following night to the maguey ; and again did this 
good and patient man go after it, and carry it to his 
house, this time placing it in a strong box which he 
both locked and bolted, and himself the next night 
sleeping upon the box; but to no avail, as the image 
was found the following morning again under the ma- 



120 MEXICO. 



guey, although the box had not been opened. Being 
now satisfied that he could not domesticate this image 
as a household god, Cequauhtzin sought the assistance 
of a priest, San Gabriel, whose advice, on account of 
its practicability, is very commendable, and worthy 
of imitation: that, as the image could not be kept 
away from its favorite abode under the maguey, a 
temple or church should be constructed over it, which 
was commenced at once, completed shortly, and ded- 
icated to Our Lady of Succor. In 1574-5, the present 
church was erected over the walls of this original 
chapel, although not fully completed for more than one 
hundred years afterward. In these churches this 
image has found a constant and permanent home, or, 
to speak more correctly, around the constant and per- 
manent home of this image were built these churches. 
The image is about eight inches long, of carved wood, 
and holding in its tiny and tender embrace the Infant 
Jesus. The image is now decaying, disfigured and 
naked, only a few pearls remaining from the rich 
drapery which once shrouded and adorned it. Since 
"the gods themselves grow old," they cannot protect 
their images from the ravages of Time. The tradi- 
tional gourd, now broken and mended, is preserved in a 
silken case; and the gold and silver ornaments of the 
altar have been replaced with baser metals. On a 
slab, in front of the altar, is this inscription in Spanish : 



This is the true spot where was found the 
most Holy Virgin, beneath a maguey, by 
the Chief, Don Juan Aguila, in the year 
1540 (being the spot) where she said to 
him, in the time of her appearance to him, 
that he should search for her. 



RELIGIOUS, 121 



What could be more appropriate than to here find 
the tomb of the good Juan with the chest in which he 
tried to confine the image resting upon it! 

This is one of the most beautiful legends I have ever 
heard; but here is its sister, or, perhaps, I should say 
its daughter, as it succeeds the first in time: 

On the morning of Saturday, December 9, 1531, a 
pious native, although bearing the Spanish name, 
Juan Diego, hving in the village of Tolpetlac, on his 
way to the church of Santiago Tlaltelolco, passing 
round the hillside of Tepeyacac, heard the music of 
voices singing, which filled him with fear; but, taking 
courage, he looked up, saw a lady near, who com- 
manded him to Hsten, and he was told by her to go to 
the bishop, and tell him that she desired a temple 
in her honor built on that hill. This message was 
quickly and faithfully borne to the bishop, Don Juan 
Zumarraga, who gave but an incredulous ear, and 
turned the messenger sorrowfully away. Three times 
was this repeated, until the incredulous bishop began 
to doubt, commanding the messenger to bring some 
unmistakable token of the truth of what he said. 
This faithful messenger, true to his mission, again 
sought the hill, followed by two spies of the bishop ; 
but, as he approached the hill, became invisible to the 
spies, who were able to report nothing ; but, on again 
meeting with the lady, Juan Diego was told by her to 
return next day. Not being able, on account of domes- 
tic misfortunes, to keep his engagement next day with 
the lady ; and, being urged by great necessity to make a 
trip from his house to the church, he went another 
way, so he would not be detained by falling in with 
her ; but she still met him, and told him that his uncle. 



122 MEXICO. 



whose sickness and impending death were the cause 
of his retention at home and his hurried trip to bring 
him a confessor, was now well. Having thus com- 
posed him, she told him to gather flowers from the 
rocks on top of the hill, which had theretofore been 
entirely barren, and take them to the bishop, as the 
token he had desired, and to keep them carefully con- 
cealed until the bishop had seen them. He folded 
the flowers in his tilma, a small shawl or wrap, and set 
out for the bishop's; and instantly, at the place where 
the lady stood, a spring of water gushed forth. Of 
this I myself drank, but was greatly shocked, in view 
of the tradition, when I discerned the taste of sulphur. 
Arriving at the bishop's house, he emptied out the 
flowers at the bishop's feet, when, lo! they had im- 
pressed on the tilma an image of the Holy Virgin, the 
figure being that of a beautiful woman in mantled 
cloak, hands approximated, and standing on a cres- 
cent supported by a cherub. Of those of philosophic 
turn I will ask, why the resemblance of this picture 
to one, if not, indeed, a copy, painted on the Nile 3000 
or 4000 years ago? And of the worldly I will ask, if, 
in these two legends, they do not discern the policy of 
the priest instead of the hand of the divinity? 

Details may be passed over; the church was built; 
the image of the Virgin on this tilma placed therein; 
and it has now become the great shrine of Mexico. 

So much for this legend, as such, and I think it 
quite as beautiful as the other; but we are not yet 
done with it. 

It has a long list of indorsements from the court of 
Rome on down to Pope Leo XIII, who wrote poetry 
in Latin about it, and his kneehng image in stone is 



RELIGIOUS. 123 



worshipfully set before it. Having the highest sanc- 
tion which church authority can confer, it is the grand 
objective point of pilgrimages in Mexico, and thousands 
resort thither. Eighteen thousand, by careful esti- 
mate, I saw there at one time, sleeping on impro- 
vised cots or in blankets on the ground, and living in 
the open air. 

So popular is this image of the Virgin that I have 
seen it almost everywhere, occupying not only the 
places where she can claim a peculiar fitness, but the 
places where we use our Goddess of Liberty as well. 
In the mountains, more than one hundred miles from 
communication with the outside world, I found my 
room adorned with it. On a little stand, that occu- 
pied the corner, was an ordinary drinking-glass filled 
with oil; across the top of this was a httle plate of 
common tin, with a small hole punched in the center 
to support a taper reaching down into the oil, which 
was kept lighted and burning with a flame about as 
large as a common pea, very faintly illuminated a 
picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe set close behind it. 

This shrine is not absent even in the haunts of vice 
and crime, and at one end of what is famiharly known 
among us as the dance-hall, a picture of the Guada- 
lupe Virgin with a burning taper before it does duty. 

I have read in one of my works on anthropology, by 
Tylor, I think, that the Gypsies of Spain, when they 
go thieving, wear, suspended around their necks, as 
an amulet, a translation, into their language, of one 
of the four gospels, made by some devoted priest. 

The amulets and charms of religion have ever been 
the mascots of crime also. 

The church at Guadalupe is built at the foot of the 



124 MEXICO. 



hill of Totoltepec, which rises abruptly behind it, and 
which one ascends by a series of stone steps to an 
eminence where another small chapel is located, and 
where one overlooking the church itself, gets a beauti- 
ful view of the valley, the city, the surrounding moun- 
tains and the lakes. The stench, as one proceeds up 
this hill, becomes more terrible, and, on investigation, 
I discover that this sacred mountain is at last put to 
its proper use. 

The spring or flowing well is at another point of the 
hill, not far from the church. You can dip your own 
bucket and drink. The faithful consider it sacred, 
because they take off their hats and cross themselves 
when approaching it; and here I purchased a photo- 
graph of the shrine. 

The government instituted an inquiry into the truth 
of the history of the shrine, and its fraud was exposed ; 
but in Mexico, as in all the world, no law exists against 
ignorance; but imposition, taking advantage of cre- 
dulity, is a crime the world over. 

The whole thing was a stupendous scheme to con- 
vert the natives, and it succeeded ; but soon these poor 
people will know better, and will act differently. The 
process has been slow, because error clings to us more 
tenaciously than truth. 

Even glaring falsehood is used to give importance 
to the place. I have read in the books, and my guide 
also told me, that the silver in the railing around the 
shrine weighs twenty-seven tons. I tapped on it with 
my pocketknife, as I passed along, and it resounded 
like an empty tin can. My guide is a liar, the official 
liar of the shrine, and is most expert in his calling; he 
is a cheat also, because I employed him, agreeing that 



RELIGIOUS. 125 



he should give me thirty minutes of his time for one 
dollar; we walk up one side of the church and down 
the other, the guide sputtering about this and that in 
a language that sounded Hke a whizzing mixture of 
Spanish, French and English, and knowing a little of 
all of these languages, I was able to understand what 
he was trying to say. He had not yet spent ten min- 
utes of his time with me, when he brought me to a halt 
facing the sacred image on the tilma; and, between 
genuflections and crossings, demanded his dollar, which 
he had not yet earned. I remonstrated that we had 
not yet been at it ten minutes; but, finding him ob- 
durate, I handed over the dollar with my testimo- 
nial that he was a har, a fraud and a cheat, and that 
I thought I could get on better without than with him 
anyway. 

So much, then, for the shrine of Mexico. 

One lacks no opportunity to go to church, or to mass, 
as would be said in Mexico. Every morning at three 
o'clock, the church-bells ring a fury, more exciting than 
the oldtime fire alarm, awakening everybody in town, 
except, I presume, those accustomed to it. Those 
who take the alarm seriously, I imagine, should jump 
out of bed, and run half-dressed, with their heart in 
their throat and prayers on their hps, to save their 
souls from the consuming fires of the approaching day ; 
but I, unaccustomed to being awakened by a fire-alarm 
at three o'clock every morning, and being also unable 
to comprehend how combustion can occur without 
carbon or oxygen, — ^I am afraid I frequently turned 
over in my bed muttering to myself unsanctimoniously. 

At every hour of every day, from three o'clock a. m., 



126 MEXICO. 



the church-bells call us heavenward, to speak poet- 
ically; but, in reality, they strike a hurried, exciting 
and troublesome warning or alarm, except, however, 
for a short time following noon, when the priest enjoys 
his siesta; but I should say, when the priests enjoy 
their siesta, because these churches are always supphed 
with a number of priests, who, by working shifts or 
turns, can make their profession very easy, without 
allowing the people any rest. 

I never determined how late at night these hourly 
alarms were rung off, because, being naturally of a 
sleepy disposition, to which was usually added exhaus- 
tion toward the close of the day, I retired early, as I 
always have, even when a boy, and, during the early 
part of the night, slept so soundly that nothing short of 
an earthquake would have wakened me. 

I attended some of these masses at various places 
in the country; and I will describe one at Zacatecas. 

The church, a very large one, a cathedral, was located 
in the heart of the city; and I will briefly describe it, 
in order to lead up to the impressions of the worship ; 
but, as none of us is up very high on church archi- 
tecture, I will avoid any attempt at technical terms. 

All the external, . except the front, may be passed 
over as unimportant : a stone wall, almost windowless, 
plastered without and within, massive, and, in the 
rear, as is usual in Mexico, in the heart of the city, con- 
tinuous with other buildings, a hotel on one side; and, 
if I remember correctly, a market-place on the other, 
but frequently a feed-lot or corral in which people 
coming to church on burros can turn them, while they 
go to worship. 

The front of this church needs special mention, as a 



RELIGIOUS. 127 



work of art and impressive architecture. A square 
and massive tower of cut stone composes each corner, 
with a square belfry of carved and fluted stone on top ; 
and the space between these towers is composed of 
carved columns and statuary, from the ground to the 
top, forming an immense fagade. 

Passing now to the inside, what I say may be taken, 
with some modification, as a description of almost every 
church in Mexico : A long hall-like chamber, in height 
from the ground to the roof, sometimes quite a hundred 
feet; numerous and large supporting columns on 
either side, so that one does not ordinarily notice the 
side-chambers until he has advanced a little distance 
from the door ; at the farther end is the altar ; a great 
dome occupies the center of the ceiling like an exit 
upwards; a few benches placed along at the foot of 
the columns ; but, sometimes, filling part of the space 
between the columns in front of the altar. 

The walls are well covered with pictures and paint- 
ings of allegorical representations, as well as fresco 
work and statuary. 

I sit through the services, which take nearly an hour; 
the prayers, the singing, the responsive readings, the 
chants, and all, to the extinguishing of the candles, the 
details of which I need not describe on account of their 
familiarity. Nine priests and six attendants officiated. 
The choir was out of sight, but I judge about five or 
six voices were heard. Myself and three native Mex- 
icans, one of whom came very late, constituted the 
audience. I dropped my offering in the box and a 
penny to each of the numerous beggars always present 
at church-doors in Mexico, asking alms of those who 
go in and come out, seeking earthly goods of man 



128 MEXICO. 



under the altar of Omnipotence. In explanation of 
this phase of human existence, I will refer merely to 
the fable of the man who put up his god at auction, 
crying out about his good qualities and the liberality 
of his gifts, whereupon a bystander asked why he then 
desired to sell him, to which the reply was, that he was 
wont to give his good gifts slowly. 

I have just witnessed the oldest and the greatest 
fact in human history, the worship of a deity, which 
I can understand and appreciate. Worship expresses 
the greatest sentiment of the soul, and stands not only 
for the inward feeling, but the outward show as well. 
Worship I inwardly feel, and outwardly know; but 
what is religion? 

Not knowing, in reality, what religion is, notwith- 
standing all I have said, I cannot, therefore, tell 
whether or not I am of a religious turn of mind, al- 
though I have examined many dictionaries, and noted, 
in passing, the writings of jurists, theologians and 
philosophers, but without being able to pound it into 
my thick head. 

The effect, the result, of religious operation, I think 
I know something about, on the same principle that 
enables me to comprehend electric action in its effects 
or results; and, I think, I understand a few of its 
modes of operation ; but what is electricity ? 

I do not want to be understood as pressing the cor- 
respondence between religion and electricity beyond 
my ignorance. What electricity is, is a subject for 
investigation, which the future may develop and ex- 
plain in its nature, aside from its effects. 

What religion is, is doubtless well understood by 
Very many; and, all I need to do, is to wait to be tdld. 



RELIGIOUS. 129 



I am so anxious, however, for the information, that 
if anyone will tell me what religion is, I will not only be 
obliged to him; but, if he will give me a definition in 
one single and connected sentence, harmonizing the 
meaning with the practice, or stating the contrariety, 
I will send him my autograph! If he wants a copy 
of this book, he will have to pay for it. 

I peeped into this church at other times, as I went by, 
and saw eight persons, as the greatest number present 
at any one time, and, sometimes, none; but always a 
number of priests. How do these priests make their 
money, I wonder? This is a material question. 

I must not, however, be understood as saying or 
implying that these churches are never full. I have 
elsewhere stated about the great crowds attending 
religious gatherings ; but these have all the significance 
of excursions to the bishop who gets them up ; and to 
the railroads, which carry the people ; and, to the peo- 
ple themselves, as I myself observed, of an outing. 

This, also, is the true significance of the thing among 
us, where great excursions are gotten up for the pur- 
pose of the annual meetings of religious orders and so- 
cieties ; and I saw happen in Mexico what I have seen 
here, that a great many of those who started on these 
excursions, like the crusades of the Middle Ages, never 
got there, but their bones have not been found whiten- 
ing the Plains of Abraham. 

No lack of clothing, food and shelter for the priest, 
who not only presents a well-nourished physique, as 
the doctors would say, but is fat, as we find him every- 
where, when his bodily build will permit the taking on 
of flesh. His clothing is always ample, and he usually 



130 MEXICO. 



wears a tremendously large cloak. His church, where 
he spends much of his time, is large and well furnished, 
and, sometimes, is almost the only thing to be called 
a house in the town, and, not infrequently, represent- 
ing a greater expenditure of money than all the town 
besides. A town must be small to have but one church, 
and towns of 5000 to 7000 inhabitants have three or 
four. The multitude of priests explains the multitude 
of churches. 

Notwithstanding the fact that all church property 
was confiscated by the state some years ago, the priest 
does not seem to have gro^ai either lean or poor. 
Prior to this confiscation, I was told that the church 
owned great tracts of land, and practically carried 
on the business of the country through its banks. 
Now the church owns nothing, but is allowed to use, 
rent free, the church buildings for religious purposes, 
and religious services of every nature, even funeral 
services, must be held in the church, and cannot be 
held in the home of the deceased. All religious pro- 
cessions or parades are also prohibited, and a priest 
is not even allowed to wear any of the regalia of his 
office outside the church ; but, from the number of in- 
fractions I observed, this provision of the law is a dead 
letter. The intention of the law evidently is to confine 
within the church- walls all things religious. 

By the confiscation of all church property by the 
state, the priest has become poor in wealth, but evi- 
dently enjoys all he formerly did, except the vanity 
of riches. I think he doubtless eats and sleeps as well 
as he formerly did, wears as good clothes, and enjoys 
more ease, than when encumbered with property. 

I have never been able to understand how men could 



RELIGIOUS. 131 



roll in luxury at the expense of pain and misery ; how 
the men of the cloth could accept even a pittance from 
the poor and miserable, who needed it to supply every 
want of life, and consume it in the smoke of tobacco 
and the flow of the bowl ; how the money which should 
go to shoe the feet of the children against the mud 
and the cold, could be expended for velvets and furs ; 
how the bread which should save from the hunger of a 
sleepless night, could supply luxuries for a house-dog ; 
how, in short, that the misery of one could be made the 
happiness and comfort of another : but such is the life 
of the priest. Cold, implacable, assuming poverty in 
the midst of riches, he is as inexorable as Fate ; greedy 
and insatiable, he would devour the substance of the 
land; austere and uncompromising, he knows no al- 
ternative; vain and domineering, he submits to no 
authority; egotistic and pretending, he assumes to 
represent God. 

The occupation of the bishop is almost an un- 
known thing to me, as I. saw but two, and had little 
opportunity to observe them; but, in addition to 
learning that the country is well supphed with them 
numerically, I was told, by a man in a position to 
know, that the great movements of the people, by 
the tens of thousands often, to shrines and holy places, 
are managed by the bishop direct with the railroad 
companies, the bishop having a clerk or superintend- 
ent of transportation; that the bishop gets up these 
excursions, advising the railroads in advance of about 
the number of tickets he will want, so that the rail- 
roads can arrange to move the people at the proper 
time; and the intimation was also put forward that 
there was something in it for the bishop. Railroads 



132 MEXICO. 



have been known to pay commissions and even re- 
bates; and the bishop, while subserving an earthly 
purpose, keeps hope in heaven warm also. 

But aside from any specific information, and relying 
upon history and general principles, we are justified 
in concluding that all such great moves on the part 
of the church have now, as in the past ages, an imme- 
diate, earthly advantage or profit as well as the 
maintenance of their faith and the aggrandizement 
of their religion. In support of this, I mention merely 
the crusades. 

I do not want anyone to conclude, from what I 
have said respecting the church, on account of the 
frequent reference to the Catholic Church, by reason 
of its prevalence in Mexico, that I am directing my 
remarks, when I come to the general view, particularly 
to that institution, for such is not the case. In the 
^^eneral view, the church as a corporation, a religious 
corporation, representing whatsoever faith, in what- 
soever time, is the object of my remarks, because I 
find that all religions have a common purpose, from 
which I am justified, I think, in asserting that all 
rehgions have a common origin; and, striking at the 
very root of the matter, I declare that the human 
mind is the only source I can find from which these 
diverging, but kindred streams flow, all eventually 
reaching the same ocean, where they mingle their 
waters. 

In like manner I want to be understood, when using 
the word priest, to refer to the order in all religions 
opposed to the laity, and not to the ministers of any 
particular faith. 



RELIGIOUS. 133 



In the same broad sense is the word priest used in 
the following : 

Of all the evils which escaped from Pandora's box, 
the institution of priesthoods was the worst. Priests 
have been the curse of the world; and, if we admit 
the merits of many of those of our own time to be as 
preeminent above those of all others, as the esprit 
du corps of the most self-contented individual of the 
order may incite him to consider them, great as I am 
willing to allow the merits of many individuals to be, 
I will not allow that they form exceptions strong 
enough to destroy the general nature of the rule. 
Look at China, the festival of Juggernaut, the Cru- 
sades, the Massacres of St. Bartholomew, of the Mex- 
icans, and of the Peruvians, the fires of the Inquisition, 
of Mary, Cranmer, Calvin, and of the Druids ; look at 
Ireland, look at Spain; in short, look everywhere, 
and you will see the priests reeking with gore. They 
have converted, and are converting, populous and 
happy nations into deserts, and have made our beau- 
tiful world into a slaughter-house drenched with 
blood and tears! {''The Celtic Druids," by Godfrey 
Higgins, London, 1829.) 

A great religious gathering occurred at Penjamo, a 
city of about seven thousand people, while I was there, 
the center of attraction, if not the only attraction, 
being the presence of the bishop. The train on which 
he came arrived about six o'clock in the morning, at a 
station about three miles from the city, reached by a 
mule-car line. 

For a mile or more down the railroad track, people 
were Hned along either side in great numbers, as well 
as the entire length of the mule-car hue, to welcome 
him by the shooting of firecrackers; and in the city 
a great crowd, acting in hke manner, also, awaited 



134 MEXICO. 



and welcomed him, and an advance-guard of about 
twenty men on horseback rode ahead of the car which 
took him from the station to the city. All these 
people kneeled down, the men removing their hats, as 
the bishop appeared and passed by, which is the cus- 
tom everywhere, on the appearance of the bishop or 
his carriage, because I have seen people kneel on hear- 
ing the bishop's carriage approach, before they could 
see whether he was in it or not. Arriving at the city, 
the bishop proceeded directly to the principal church; 
in a very few minutes, the crowd dispersed completely, 
without any reassembhng during the day; and, aside 
from some extra and vigorous church-bell ringing, one 
would not know that anything had happened out of 
the usual and ordinary. 

This kneeling of a whole populace to a mere man is 
more than a democratic mind is inchned to stand; 
and we, in the do-as-you-please United States, cannot 
comprehend the disposition and feeling of people 
raised under the monarchical regime, either in church 
or state. A gentleman in Mexico, who had traveled 
in Europe, to whom I mentioned this fact, told me 
that he saw, in London, a man take off his hat as the 
baggage- wagon of the Prince of Wales went by! 
Nothing would seem more debasing to us. 

Further, to illustrate this feature of human debase- 
ment, I will recall one of Grimm's fables, which I once 
tried to read in the original; and, for that reason, 
specially remember it. 

Two men, of great adroitness, had been performing 
such remarkable things as to attract the attention of 
the daughter of the king, for whom they agreed to 
fill a certain room with gold, asking only the recom- 



RELIGIOUS. 135 



pense that they be allowed to be present at her wed- 
ding, all of which was, of course, granted. 

Now, the point is this, that men of low estate con- 
sidered the distinction of attending a royal wedding 
of more value than a roomful of gold ; and this, at one 
time, and still, in some places, is the condition of men's 
minds, a sad state, incomprehensible to many of us. 

But, just once more! On the return of the imperial 
court, at the end of the Boxer uprising in China, a few 
years ago, the newspapers told us that the soldiers 
and the populace received it on their knees. Such is 
the influence of custom; and I repeat with Pindar, 
"Custom is the king of all men.'^ 

An incident occurred during the progress of this 
procession, which should be related to show what 
politics will lead men to do : 

A prominent politician, and, until lately, an office- 
holder, resigning in favor of his son, who had fre- 
quently cursed the CathoHc Church to me, or in my 
hearing, and, when not cursing spoke derogatorily 
of it and its priests, was on the street, and stepped 
into a private house to avoid kneeling to the bishop, 
which he would have done, had he not been able to 
escape. 

What will not politicians do, as matter of policy, 
when religion is involved ! With great force, one might 
here recall the attitude of Henry IV of France, who, 
for conscience, when he was king of Navarre, was a 
Reformer, a Protestant; but, when he became king 
of France, and policy demanded that he become a 
CathoHc, said, on the day before his abjuration, "To- 
morrow is the day I shall make the summerset which 
will bring down the house." 



136 MEXICO, 



We, therefore, see that the present can neither claim 
originaHty nor a monopoly in spectacular acrobatic 
performances. 

The governmental policies of Constantine the Great 
and of Henry VIII, as respects the religions they, at 
various times, pretended to profess, furnish quite as 
lively examples. 

The personal customs of the Mexicans, especially 
when a large crowd of them has collected as at this 
religious gathering, cannot be looked upon with very 
great complacency. Had Diogenes been present, at 
this reception, he would have crawled into his tub, 
and turned it upside down over him; or, if his house 
was a cask, as some claim, he would have closed even 
the bunghole for shame; but, such is custom. This 
came to the native Mexicans, I presume, as a heritage 
/rom Spain, as, I am informed, a Hke practice pre- 
vails in all the Mediterranean countries. The law is 
being enforced against it ; and, in a list of arrests and 
punishments for a month, which I examined in one of 
the towns, a great many were for "Failure of respect." 

A short time before my arrival in the City of Mexico, 
the Shriners held a great conclave there for the purpose 
of initiating President Diaz into the mysteries of that 
order. President Diaz, I was told, is a devout Catholic, 
going to confession once a week ; and I think this must 
be the first instance where the Cathohc Church ever 
permitted one of its members to become a Mason. 
President Diaz might, therefore, be regarded as ab- 
solute over the Cathohc Church in Mexico as he is over 
the government ; and the certainty is, that the Catholic 



RELIGIOUS. 137 



Church, from matter of poUcy, in which that institu- 
tion has always excelled, will permit President Diaz to 
do as he pleases; and that, if, beforehand. President 
Diaz had submitted to the church the question as to 
whether or not he could consistently become a Shriner, 
he would have received the answer, which Cambyses, 
king of Persia, got from the judges, that, while they 
could find no law permitting the act, yet they had 
discovered another, permitting the king of Persia to 
do as he pleased. 

The whole text from which this reference is taken is so 
appropriate, and so forcible an illustration of how 
poHcy overrules principle in great matters of both 
church and state, that I here give the passage in full: 

Cambyses became enamored of one of his sisters, 
and, then, being desirous of making her his wife, be- 
cause he proposed doing what was not customary, 
he summoned the royal judges, and asked them if 
there was any law permitting one who wished to marry 
his sister. The royal judges are men chosen from 
among Persians, who continue in office until they die, 
or are convicted of some injustice. They determine 
causes between the Persians, and are the interpreters 
of the ancient constitutions, and all questions are re- 
ferred to them. When, therefore, Cambyses put the 
question, they gave an answer that was both just and 
safe, saying that they could find no law permitting a 
brother to marry his sister, but had discovered another 
law which permitted the king of Persia to do whatever 
he pleased. Thus they did not abrogate the law 
through fear of Cambyses; but, that they might not 
lose their lives by upholding the law, they found out 
another that favored his desire of marrying his sister. 
(Herodotus, Thalia, 31.) 



CHAPTER V. 
POLITICAL. 

I will attempt no constitutional history, or even 
outline, of Mexico, for the very good reason that my 
stay of two months in that country was insufficient 
to gather the information, which would require nearer 
two years, and also by reason of the fact that those 
interested in such a work would not be looking for it 
here; and, I might also add, that I do not know of 
anybody in the United States, interested in a constitu- 
tional history of Mexico, should one be written; and 
I will still keep on adding by saying that most of us 
might more profitably be learning our own constitu- 
tional history. 

M. de Tocqueville spent about three years in the 
United States, with nothing on his mind but the in- 
vestigation of governmental and social conditions, 
before he wrote his "Democracy in America," and, 
therefore, I think I am more than justified in excusing 
myself from entering upon the constitutional govern- 
ment of Mexico, when I was there but two months, 
and all that time engaged in a business enterprise, 
which first called for my attention, and demanded my 
efforts. Only think of the difference in the abilities 
and attainments of the two authors also ! Tocqueville, 
a philosopher, statesman, author, traveler; and, I, I 
only myself. 

[ 138 ] 



POLITICAL. 139 



I feel, also, that I must apologize for writing at all 
on the government of Mexico ; but, if I confine myself 
to what I actually observed and learned, ..and was in- 
formed about, I think, perhaps, that a proper excuse is 
made out; and, having apologized for myself, and 
excused myself also, as most of us do under like cir- 
cumstances, I will proceed. 

The name of the government, as shown on the old 
coins, a complete collection of which I brought home 
with me, was Repubhca Mexicana; but, as shown on 
the more recent coins, the name is now Estados Unidos 
Mexicanos, which comports more with the fact than the 
former name ; because, I think, about the first thing I 
observed, when trying to look into the form of govern- 
ment, was the absence of a repubUc, but the presence 
of united states. 

How very much we might learn of the history of a 
country by a study of its coins and money in general, 
as, also, of the world at large! I fancy that one who 
made this his special study might build up a wonder 
quite equal to Comparative Anatomy, which, from one 
bone of an unknown animal, can reproduce scientifically 
the entire creature, and determine its habits also. 

The history of the human race, if we only knew it, 
is built along as definite and certain lines; and the 
time may come, when philosophers, by the examina- 
tion of a single coin, will be able to settle the history 
of the nation. 

Upon an examination of the coins of Mexico, both 
old and new, I find the coinage, from a mechanical 
standpoint, very badly executed, and some of the old- 
est I was able to find were not milled or even round. 

I conclude from this that the mechanical arts in 



140 MEXICO. 



general are yet very imperfect; because, if perfection 
had been attained, it would show in the pride of well- 
made coins, so that I pass directly from the specific 
conclusion derived from imperfection in coinage, to 
the general proposition embracing all mechanical arts. 

Where we find imperfection in matters of the great- 
est concern, or appeahng to the highest pride, we may 
justly conclude the existence of the same condition in 
all matters beneath these. 

I see from the coins that the name of the govern- 
ment has changed, and I hence conclude' that the gov- 
ernment has, also, changed, in whole or in part. The 
name of republic has given way to that of united states ; 
and I hence conclude that liberty is on the decline. 

On the old coins, I find no boastful mottoes; but, 
on the new, I find the equivalents of ''Independence 
and Liberty." 

This is but confirmatory of the last conclusion, that 
these human rights are becoming restricted. 

I appeal to history for justification of this: When 
men were free, independence and liberty were not 
questions nor occupied their minds, as will be seen 
prior to the existence of the conditions demanding the 
enactment of the SaHc law, to Magna Charta, and to 
the Declaration of Independence; and, with this, I 
pass hurriedly on, leaving those who want arguments, 
to convince themselves. 

I find the gold coins of much smaller dimensions 
than the silver, and less numerous, and, hence, conclude 
the gold to be the more valuable. 

I also draw the conclusion that the gold is the meas- 
ure of value of the silver. 

I find no mention of God on their coins, and I there- 



POLITICAL. 141 



fore conclude that the people are heathen, and put 
their money to bad use. If they had ''In God We 
Trust" stamped upon their coin, nobody would dare 
to steal it. 

The government of Mexico is founded on lines al- 
most parallel with those of the government of the 
.United States, the latter being used as the model of the 
former; but we are much puzzled, when we come to 
examine the superstructure; and this dilSiculty in- 
creases as we progress. 

While perplexed with this difficulty, suppose we 
leave it for a time, coming to the United States, for 
the purpose of ascertaining if we can reconcile our own 
governmental practices with our constitution and 
laws ; if we do not all recall many instances when our 
constitutions have been outraged by individual and 
party interests, even when holding on to the very horns 
of the altar; if we have not had laws contrary to 
these constitutions ; and, if we have not seen practices 
contrary to both the constitution and the laws. 

Between the influence and practices of railroad 
companies, in managing the politics and controlling 
the governments of the States, in which Pennsylvania 
and Kansas have been particularly unfortunate, and 
a like attempt of the railroad companies, in conjunc- 
tion with such corporations as the Steel Trust and the 
Sugar Trust, in the affairs of the Nation, not much has 
been left to the people. 

We also see certain States, as, for instance, Dela- 
ware, run in the interest of individuals, if not almost 
entirely owned by them. 

Cities and towns are no better; and, here, the in- 



142 MEXICO. 



stances are too numerous and well known to be men- 
tioned, as all one has ordinarily to do, is to refer to his 
own city or town. 

Our mayor, serving for a nominal sum, has the ef- 
frontery to disregard even the criminal instinct of 
conceahng the stolen goods, but flaunting them in 
our face, as legitimate perquisites of the office, he sets 
up his newly-acquired wealth, as a conspicuous and 
standing advertisement before our very eyes. 

Our councilmen are no better, but fortunately op- 
portunities are less. 

Arrests, convictions and punishments may be num- 
erous, but they neither act as a preventive nor a cure; 
and the suffering of the people, therefore, continues un- 
mitigated. People hope, but in vain, for relief from 
coming elections, which, too frequently, only remove 
a full, to be replaced by an empty, leech. 

The fable of ''The Fox and the Leeches" is here very 
appropriate : 

A Fox, in crossing a river, was thrust out of her 
course into a drain, and being unable to get out, was 
harassed, for a long time, by leeches which had fas- 
tened themselves upon her, when a Hedgehog, wander- 
ing by, saw her, and, taking compassion upon her, 
asked if he should pick off the leeches ; but this the 
Fox would not permit, saying that these leeches had 
already filled themselves with her blood; and, if re- 
moved, would only give room for other empty ones, 
whose hunger would, drain from her all the blood she 
had remaining, (^sop, in pleading for a demagogue 
at Samos, Arist. Rhet., book 2, chap. 20.) 

In this state of affairs, what becomes of the will of 
the people, when they feel obliged to hold on to their 
present evils, lest they only exchange them for worse? 



POLITICAL. 143 



The will of the people is the basis of all good govern- 
ment; but the people have never yet been able to 
govern. Individuals, families, classes, organizations, 
bodies, parties, have always been our governors, and 
frequently against our will. 

The will of the people finds no expression in Amer- 
ican politics. The machine, as constructed, produces 
only one result, no matter who operates it ; and those 
who talk about "the political machine'' speak more 
wisely than they know. 

In the practical operation of our government to-day, 
to speak more respectfully than to say, in the running 
of the political machine, we find little to comport with 
the ideas of its founders, and less to harmonize with 
the will of the people, and, least of all, to benefit the 
people. 

Having thus briefly viewed results, that I might 
better ascertain and appreciate their cause, I return 
to antecedent conditions. 

Beginning now with the right of suffrage in Mexico, 
ordinarily considered the foundation of republican 
government, I find that all male persons, over the age 
of majority, may cast votes at elections ; but that they 
are denied any partiaipation in counting the votes, 
that privilege being reserved to those already hold- 
ing office, the result of which system is, that the people 
do not vote, but only the officeholders, and those di- 
rectly controlled by them. 

After the sovereign right to vote is disposed of, 
which, ordinarily, gives us a free choice among parties, 
comes the question next in order, "For whom shall 
we vote? " In the United States, we are always saved 



144 MEXICO. 



any worry on this point, because we, the people, never 
have anything to say as to who the candidate shall be ; 
and the thing, in realit}^, resolves itself to a choice 
among parties. Those who disregard party and vote 
for candidate, ordinarily throw their vote away. 

In Mexico, matters are very much simplified, as, 
but one candidate is all that ordinarily appears, who 
is named by the central government at the City of 
Mexico; and, to him, opposition is ordinarily not 
made, not only because of its uselessness, but because, 
also, of propriety and safety, which I have heard men- 
tioned as determining elements. 

President Diaz designates the candidate for the 
office of governor of every state, as well as all other 
chief officers in the country, elected by popular vote, 
or supposed to be ; and he even transferred a governor 
from one state to another; but, if he does not extend 
this actual control to all offices, the certainty is, that 
no person could be elected, if elected we can call it, 
to any office, of w^hatever nature or insignificance, if 
he were distasteful to President Diaz. 

No other fact is more talked of or better known in 
the country than this, so that every officeholder in 
the country owes his position directly and personally 
to President Diaz, is under his direct and immediate 
control, and does not act, except by his directions, or 
in accordance to his known will or policy. 

All laws desired by President Diaz are passed unani- 
mously, and none proposed, without first ascertain- 
ing his desire. 

From the following, in cautious reserve, by a native 
of the country, the ascendency of the President of 



POLITICAL. 145 



Mexico in rendering the remainder of the government 
a mere machine, is shown : 

With the restless, inconstant character of our race, 
the long tenure of office by one man is one of the great- 
est dangers of the peace of the nation; yet, notwith- 
standing, General Diaz has succeeded in avoiding ship- 
wreck on this shoal, making himself all but indispensa- 
ble to the completion of the reconstructive and con- 
ciliatory work of which he is the true and only author. 
The work of pacification accomplished by General 
Diaz has consisted in the strengthening of the central 
power, and the discreet use of his personal prestige 
and influence for the purpose of securing in all the 
states of the Mexican Union the election of governors 
attached to him personally, and resolved to second him 
at any cost in the task of assuring to the country the 
supreme benefit of peace, as the most imperious ne- 
cessity of the Mexican people. The patriotic convic- 
tion of the urgency, for a nation bleeding and weak- 
ened as ours has been, of a convalescent political re- 
gime to enable us to recuperate our shattered strength, 
has facilitated the insensible and voluntary creation 
of a system of governmental discipline wherein the 
federal units, like the wheels of an immense machine, 
receive without shock the impulse of force which is 
conveyed to them from the great central motor. 

" Machine, *' as designating a certain kind of-pi3litics 
and government with us, is not indicative of praise; 
but the author of this quotation is very much taken 
with his metaphor. We, however, find those who 
are, at once, so lucky and unfortunate as to constitute 
one of the wheels of this machine, and, frequently, 
though but a single cog, not objecting to the appli- 
cation of the grease, so necessary to keep down friction. 

Not only in the States, but in the federal governr 
mient as W6ll, President Diaz is in full cdnttol, and the 



146 MEXICO. 



Mexican Congress, like the assemblies convoked by 
Charlemagne in the eighth century, discusses and de- 
liberates, but only to concur in the will of the chief. 

The deliberations of the Congress of the United 
States are likewise under the dominion of a master, not 
a man in this case, but a political policy. 

The results, in both countries, so far as the people 
are concerned, from the operation of methods so akin 
in principle, must necessarily be the same. 

Therefore, the interests served in this domineering 
control are those of individuals and factions, and this 
at the expense of the people. 

All private and business enterprises are likewise 
under the absolute will of President Diaz, an example 
of which I will give, as it touches an enterprise con- 
sidering itself the most independent. 

While I was in the city, a high railroad official at- 
tempted suicide, after having been discharged from 
his position on account of drunkenness; the news- 
papers of the city, of course, were preparing to print 
the item as matter of news, all having it set up, and 
one of the papers having gone so far as to have run 
off its edition, when word was sent around to them by 
President Diaz not to print anything about it, which 
order was obeyed implicitly; and the paper which 
had run off its edition, not being able to get out an- 
other, issued none that day, without being able to 
explain to the public why. 

The attempted suppression of news sometimes has 
an opposite effect ; and, I think, that is what occurred 
here. 

The right to publish is, therefore, classed along with 
the right to vote and hold Office; but this condition 



POLITICAL. 147 



must be extended to everything, absolutely every- 
thing in Mexico, and we need spend no further time 
with particulars. 

Mexico is absolutely, immediately and irrevocably 
handled by President Diaz; I cannot say controlled, 
because he does it himself. No parallel of like abso- 
lutism has ever existed; and I say this after having 
called over the governments of the earth. While 
some of them, particularly some of the dynasties of 
Egypt, hold a close relation to conditions in Mexico, 
yet they were never safe, either as against their own 
subjects or from foreign invasion; but, in Mexico, 
the government of President Diaz is safe from every 
peril, and is sure, to continue through his lifetime. 
What other government in the world ever held by 
such a tenure? 

President Diaz, however, does not seem to be as 
sure of this as I; because, I was told, on authority 
worthy of belief, that he had deposited, in Paris and 
in London, the neat little bank account of $40,000,000, 
which would be sufficient to guard against even the 
eventualities of monarchies, as well as furnishing a 
safeguard, in that England and France would natu- 
rally take opposite sides in any international question 
involving the existence of the government of Mexico, 
so that, if it came to that, the deposit, at one place or 
the other, would be safe as against its return to the 
people of Mexico. 

President Diaz' son-in-law owns a hacienda of, to 
me, an unknown number of acres; and he has upon 
it his own standard-gauge railroad, which I myself 
saw; but the wealth of the President himself j I was 



148 MEXICO. 



told, is all in cash, or equivalent securities, the amount 
unknown. 

The condition of the people, elsewhere given, need 
only be referred to here for contrast, and I am glad 
to be saved the pain of again stating it. 

Here briefly is what shows upon the surface in the 
government of Mexico, a one-man government in all 
its operations; and my surprise, in not seeing a re- 
public, is now explained. 

Before leaving Absolutism, I want to pay my re- 
spects to those domineering politicians in our own 
country, who hold themselves out as authority on all 
subjects, and want to be the father, mother, brother, 
sister, uncle, aunt and guardian of the whole nation; 
but who may have so far fallen short, even of the 
office of father, as to have raised daughters who drink 
whisky and smoke cigarettes. 

I want to advise them that this is not the way to 
become absolute, as, by this, they only nauseate the 
public; but, they should turn to the army, as they 
will need that, and that alone, to create and sustain 
the condition they seek. 

If anyone thinks our country is coming to abso- 
lutism, he can determine that fact through the status 
of the army, which would seem to indicate that, at 
present, we are safe from absolutism; our people, on 
account of the remunerations of agriculture, mining, 
and trade, have no desire to acquire wealth by con- 
quest or rebellion ; not that they are of a pacific turn 
of mind; but they are finding gratification for their 
desires in other directions. Restrict our people here, 
and they would become as turbulent and warlike at 
home, as they are now courageous to meet a foreign foe. 



POLITICAL. 149 



But a stable government of any kind, even a pure 
military despotism, however unequal the distribution 
of its powers and benefits, is better than the anarchy 
of continual revolutions. 

Modifications, and, sometimes, changes, are desira- 
ble in governments, that they may serve the people 
in unforeseen wants or exigencies; and the necessity, 
therefore, exists of having a form pHable enough for 
adaptation to the new condition. 

Despotisms, like a great vase, may be variously 
colored and ornamented, but their shape and texture 
must remain the same ; and, hence, only the gratifica- 
tion of show can be derived from them in adaptation 
to conditions. 

Aristocracies can bend only in the stiff attitude of 
a family out of sympathy with the community in which 
it lives, but from which it gets its support. 

In oligarchies, the nation is resolved into a business 
proposition. 

Only in democracies, as with a house built of bricks, 
may the structure be modified at will, without the loss 
or destruction of the material. 

While Mexico is now enjoying the blessings of an 
enforced peace, without probability of change, the 
United States is experiencing a political revolution in 
the methods of selecting and electing its officers, from 
the lowest to the highest, being now in the experimen- 
tal stage, without much indication as to the final re- 
sult ; but out of the confusion of ballots, the methods 
of casting them, and the selection of candidates and the 
choice of officers, the will of the people must eventually 
be evolved, retarded indeed, by constitutions, which 



150 MEXICO. 



neither express the will nor provide for the necessities 
of the people; but the work is, nevertheless, progress- 
ing. 

Influence over the voter at the polls has quite, if not 
entirely, disappeared ; but party leaders still name the 
candidates, leaving the voter only the choice between 
the parties ; and, while he is exercising the great fran- 
chise of choice, he is still unable to express his will. 
Everybody is free to enter the race, but the winners are 
named in advance by the few. The people will even- 
tually select their candidates; and, from among their 
candidates, will, in the exercise of more deliberation, 
choose their officers ; and this will apply to all oflicers ; 
but the means by which are not yet determined. 

How is President Diaz maintaining himself in this 
position of absolute dictator? Answer: By the army. 

How did he bring about the present condition of 
affairs? Answer: By the army. 

How did he obtain command of the army? Answer: 
By revolution. 

How did he become the central or all-dominant 
figure in the revolution? Answer: By being the 
strongest character in it. 

How did that revolution arise, and for what purpose? 
Answer: By revolt or rebellion against the then es- 
tabhshed government to get possession of it. 

Was the government overthrown by Diaz the legal 
and regularly established government of the coun- 
try? Answer: No man can tell. 

What degree of peace and domestic prosperity, prior 
to this time, and following the achievement of her 
independence, had Mexico enjoyed? Answer: None, 
practically none. 



POLITICAL. 151 



During this time, had the citizens been safe in the 
enjoyment of their lives and property? Answer: If 
you mean the natives, who formed more than ninety- 
five percent of the population, they had no property 
to enjoy; and, being slaves, their fives did not demand 
the consideration of safety. 

Who was governing Mexico then during that time? 
Answer: Nobody. Misrule or anarchy was its con- 
dition. 

What, then, was the status of affairs? Answer: 
Aside from the short reign of Maximifian, in the gov- 
ernment established by France in the ''sixties," which 
was infinitely worse for the country than the attempts 
at home rule, the history is that of a series of mifitary 
uprisings, rebelfions and revolutions, arising mostly 
among the Spanish-Mexican factions in the country, 
for the loot of government, until the final rising of 
the natives, which drove those people and their con- 
tentions to the rear, and brought Diaz to the front. 

Why should not Diaz then be named along with 
Bozzaris, Bofivar, and Washington? Answer: He 
should and he is; and not only this, but he has a char- 
acter for war and government stronger than any of 
those great names. 

But you have spoken of Diaz as rebel and outlaw; 
explain yourself. Answer: These names only attach 
to a man when he fails, and are swallowed up in revo- 
lution. In my turn, I ask what would have become of 
the names of Bozzaris, Bofivar and Washington, had 
their causes failed? 

Why not then is the present government of Mexico 
right and proper? Answer: The future will have to 
answer this question; I am neither oracle nor prophet; 



152 MEXICO, 



but, in so far as military despotisms present themselves 
in history, we find that, during the ascendency of their 
creator and promoter, they maintain themselves with 
great dominance, and go to pieces with the fall of their 
leader, which is always the rule in warfare, also, carried 
on by the will and direction of one man. Under 
these governments, the people are never happy or 
prosperous. 

Whether the terrible severity which President Diaz 
exercised in putting down all opposition to his govern- 
ment was justifiable, as homicide, under proper cir- 
cumstances and conditions, is justifiable, must be de- 
cided at that long distance in the future, when the mind 
of the historian and philosopher, uninfluenced by the 
times, can, calmly and laboriously, Uke the geologist, 
digging through strata, tell what the history has been. 

By simply calling attention to the killing, by the 
soldiery, of the ex-governor of Zacatecas and his com- 
panion in the highway, because suspected of intending 
to foment a rebellion, and of nine of the principal mer- 
chants of Vera Cruz, in the same manner and for the 
same purpose, and the disappearance of political op- 
ponents, things still universally and constantly talked 
about in Mexico, I leave this phase of the subject. 

If the acts of President Diaz, in the establishment of 
his government, have passed into history, awaiting a 
day of judgment, we cannot say as much for all his 
acts, and, particularly, those of the present, in which 
all men have an interest. 

While in Mexico, I heard that thirty striking work- 
men at Puebla, or some other place in that vicinity, 
statements differing, had been lined up by the soldiers 
and shot. On account of the control which President 



POLITICAL. 153 



Diaz exercises over the press, everybody knows that 
matters of this kind are not hkely to get before the 
pubHc, except by rumor, Hke the affairs in Europe 
during the Middle Ages; and as no one knows what 
credence to give to these reports, the result is, they 
obtain wider circulation and more comment than if 
regularly or properly published, thus producing vaga- 
ries, fears, suspicions, distrust ; yet nobody dares com- 
plain. 

Now this rumor of the shooting by the soldiers, 
without trial, of the thirty striking workmen, might 
have been entirely without foundation, and might have 
been a mere and purposely-circulated falsification; 
but the unfortunate thing is, that it had more force 
than the truth; and the still more unfortunate thing 
is, that the present restriction of legitimate news 
creates a condition where any false and plausible rumor 
may be set afoot for the very purpose of working mis- 
chief. 

On September 15th and 16th, the people of Mexico 
celebrate their Independence Day; and, I was told, 
their demonstrations scarcely know any bounds, reach- 
ing far into the mischievous, and often approaching 
the destructive, such as was seen a couple of years 
ago, when our fall festivals were running at their 
height, but which have now, fortunately, fallen into 
disrepute and disuse. 

In 1906, however, all demonstration was suppressed 
by the army, on account of a report having gotten 
current that an uprising of the people against the 
government was to be made at that time; but this 
year, 1907, the usual celebration was had, 

I made inquiries regarding conditions in Septem- 



154 MEXICO. 



ber, 1906, and find that the government had taken 
this action on the ground that certain Mexicans, Hv- 
ing in the United States, and pubHshing papers in 
which they were constantly attacking the govern- 
ment, had created such a feehng at home, that the 
people were in a rebellious frame of mind; but the 
opposition claimed that this course on the part of 
the government was without justification, and was 
a scheme to call to the attention of the people of the 
country that their greatest enemies were these refu- 
gee Mexicans in the United States. 

On these disputes, the future historian must come 
to the rescue, and determine, in the light of eventu- 
alities, the operating cause, the policy, and the result. 

I heard much said and many rumors were afloat 
about one of these Mexican editors at El Paso, Texas, 
who was residing there, and issuing a sheet against 
the Mexican government, some saying he had been 
taken and delivered to the Mexican authorities at the 
center of the bridge between El Paso and Cuidad 
Juarez; others, that he had been taken, and allowed 
to enter a telegraph office at El Paso on the pretense 
of sending a message, giving the officers the slip through 
the back door; and still other accounts were given. 
The people of Mexico, under their system of news, 
have no way of finding out, and I made no inquiries 
as to the fact at El Paso. The effect of such rumors 
on the Mexican mind, and not the determination of 
the fact, is where my purpose ceased. 

Unrestricted pubHcation of all facts at the proper 
time, and in the proper manner, with the require- 
ment of decency placed upon opinions, should be 
the law and the practice of the case. 



POLITICAL. 155 



Bad news is better than no news, because the facts 
should be known; and "Suspense consumeth the 
soul." 

Of the future of Mexico, I need only repeat, that, 
during the life of President Diaz, the present status 
will be maintained ; and that, beyond^ that, all will be 
confusion. The government being of one man, like 
a house on but a single prop, will fall with him. Nothing 
can save it; because only another Diaz could main- 
tain it, and the present is the only one produced since 
the world began, which precludes the idea of an imme- 
diate reproduction; and I doubt much if ever the 
world will produce another. Some men are so dis- 
tinctive, that they stand alone in the world's history. 

President Diaz is, I should think, a full-blood na- 
tive Mexican Indian, although statements on this 
question differ, some saying he is a half breed; but 
the question will always remain undecided, for his 
father is unknown. He is much darker than shown 
by his pictures and statuettes, so many of which we 
see, and this is my chief reason for saying he is a full- 
blood. 

Statements also differ as to his tribe, two tribes 
claiming him. 

His history may be briefly sketched: Raised an 
orphan boy, receiving a military training, turning 
rebel, then outlaw, fleeing from his country in disguise, 
returning a revolutionist, then perpetual president. 

I had the good fortune to meet a man who was em- 
ployed in the family of President Diaz, during the 
turbulent times which led to his present position, 
when almost all the history concerning the present 



156 MEXICO. 



status of affairs was made ; and we sat up most of two 
nights talking, which reminded me much hke read- 
ing the tales of European monarchs, obtained from 
their servants. 

Were I not under personal obhgations and con- 
fidence, I would write, at least, an outHne of what he 
told me; but, as the matter stands, this must be a 
closed chapter. 

Having thus given a brief outline of appearances 
rather than reaHties respecting the government of 
Mexico, in general, I will now touch upon some of the 
details; and, as, with us, the States and their govern- 
ment would most naturally attract our attention, in an 
examination of affairs in our own country, I will now 
refer to the States of Mexico. 

In Mexico, the States, about thirty in number, are, 
in reahty, but provinces of the general government; 
while, in the United States, they are independent 
sovereignties, except as to the powers delegated by 
the constitution of the United States. 

The situation may be stated thus: 

In the United States, the government is, primarily, 
in the States, except such matters of national concern 
as are delegated to the United States by the consti- 
tution for the purpose of forming a central govern- 
ment of all the States; while, in Mexico, the central 
government, being but the continuance of a military 
revolution, is everything, and the States nothing, ex- 
cept by the grace or permission of the central power, 
and exist only at the will or pleasure of the central 
government, which is Diaz himself. 

In the United States, the power flows, by consti- 



POLITICAL. 157 



tutional guaranty, from the States or the people to 
the central government, whose power it then consti- 
tutes; while, in Mexico, as now exercised, all power 
is in the central government, and flows, thence, at 
will or pleasure, to the States. 

Those, among us, who advocate a more potent 
federal government, may find an exemplification of 
that idea carried to. its limit in Mexico; and, if this 
is their ideal, they must set about the establishment 
of it by nothing less than a mihtary revolution, and 
must, as in Mexico, maintain it by the army. If their 
ideas fall short of extreme military absolutism, I leave 
it to them to say where they wish to stop ; and, later 
on, to advise the means for calhng a halt at the proper 
time. 

In the United States, we have a numerous class, 
otherwise calhng themselves democratic in principle, 
but who urge, with passion, the centrahzation of al- 
most unhmited power in all matters, in the federal 
government, never once suspecting, if they think at 
all on the subject, that the centrahzation for which 
they contend means an entire change in the form of 
our government to the extinguishment of the rights 
of the people; and so earnest and persistent do they 
seem to be, as to giVe their attitude all the appear- 
ance of that devotion characteristic of fanatical ad- 
herence to a religious tenet. 

Earnestness and persistency are more frequently 
indulged in the advocacy of error than truth. 

In the United States, the terms ''the States" and 
''the people" are equivalent; and, particularly, is 
this true of the tenth amendment : 

The powers not delegated to the United States by 



158 MEXICO. 



the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. 

I am unquaHfiedly in favor of maintaining, in its 
full force and effect, this provision of the constitution, 
which makes the States or the people the primary 
governing power, and the central government, or the 
United States, in the language of the amendment, to 
consist only of the powers delegated by the consti- 
tution. Those, who think they see, in the federal 
government, a power greater than the States, the 
people, who delegated it, have committed the error, 
so common to the individual as well as to the race, 
of regarding the creature greater than its creator; 
and we are not without examples, some even in our 
own day, where those elevated to an office, which 
they are, in no manner worthy to fill, have proceeded, 
with such a degree of egotism and ignorance, as to 
disregard both the creator and the creature, the people 
and the government; and, when brought to a halt,, 
seemed to take it as a surprise that any power should 
exist to prevent them from doing as they pleased; 
but such is one, and the greatest^ danger to which all 
governments are subject. 

These madmen always communicate their malady 
to the susceptible portion of the community, and thus 
infected, they often rush to their own destruction, 
dragging the suffering nation with them. Where the 
people have not delegated too much of their power, 
this cannot happen; but all nations, as now consti- 
tuted, are in danger of it, so that the conclusion is 
irresistible that all States, all people, have delegated 
too much of their power consistent with their greatest 
good and surest safety. 



POLITICAL. 159 



A state or government once established, the money 
with which to run it, speaking from a business stand- 
point, becomes all-important; and this is what has 
often placed ministers of finance, in their relations with 
the government, in so exalted a position, sometimes 
even in the control of the crown they have served, 
which condition of affairs is especially marked in 
Europe down to our own times ; but, as the resources 
of the United States have been so great, and the means 
for raising money for governmental purposes so easy, 
except during and following the Revolution and the 
Rebellion, that we number but the names of Alexander 
Hamilton and Salmon P. Chase, as the only men of dis- 
tinction as Secretaries of the Treasury. 

In Mexico, while the present government was es- 
tablished by Diaz, yet he could not have maintained 
it, had he not had the services of a most able financier 
and statesman, Le Mantuer. 

By an internal revenue or stamp tax, the govern- 
ment of Mexico supplies itself with most of the money 
needed for its expenditures; and almost every paper 
or document of any kind must bear its appropriate 
stamps. Licenses are issued to cover occupations and 
business, on which must be pasted and canceled at 
regular intervals the requisite stamps. 

I think an internal stamp tax is the proper way of 
raising governmental revenue ; or, at least, the greater 
portion of the money required for governmental ex- 
penditures, with the least disturbance to trade. Our 
prejudice against it is entirely due to the Stamp Tax 
of our history, one of the chief causes of our Revolution ; 
and our repulsion for the fact has been continued by 
our prejudice for the method, as if that had anything 



160 MEXICO. 



to do with the real injustice of the case, which was the 
unlawful taking, and not the manner of the taking. 
On the same principle, we ought to lick our postage 
stamps with regret. 

Mexico also has a tariff tax, which is adjusted to re- 
quirements, not of revenue, but of the business condi- 
tions of the country ; and this is what a tariff should be. 
If, in Mexico, the country needs wheat, the tariff is 
taken off, and wheat is admitted free ; if the country 
has wheat to sell, a tax is imposed on the importations, 
so that the government as well as the people at large 
profit by thus striking the proper equilibrium between 
supply and demand, and this produces sucH a 
Uniformity of price, as to keep this greatest of our 
necessities out of the scale of speculation. How much 
we might learn from Mexico! 

In the United States, everything is quite different. 
The government raises its revenues by a system of 
Protection, a fair name for a foul thing, a protection 
for infants even, as we are told, infant industries, some 
having grown so big and lusty and fat and lazy and 
mean, as to have turned their parents out of house 
and home to starVe in the woods. 

Iron has been protected until all the people have 
becbme loaded with chains; sugar, until bur tempters 
are no moi^ sweet; and glass, ttntil We cannbt see 
straight through it. 

Our system makes millionaires and paupers, and 
enough of both to keep the thing in operation, so that 
we see the ingenuity of those who planned it, and keep 
it going; and the paupers, the people, like the asses of 
burden they are, quicken their steps at the crack df 
the Whip br the application of the lash. 



POLITICAL. 161 



During the Middle Ages, men were governed by- 
appeals to their religious feelings, submissive as to the 
governments themselves, and fanatic as to adversaries ; 
but, at the present time, they are submissive or fa- 
natic, not as to religion, but as to politics, so we see 
that men have remained the same, having only changed 
their master. Let me again illustrate by fable : 

An Ass in battle, slowly plodding along with his load, 
on being told to hurry, lest he be captured by the en- 
emy, replied: "What difference does it make to me 
whose load I carry?" 

Men do not seem to have yet arrived at this con- 
clusion, because they exert themselves mightily for 
particular masters, when they might easily and quickly 
end their journey in captivity by the adversary. 

O men, if you must be asses, be philosophic asses! 

Following the order of importance, the army comes 
next, as a determining factor in the operation and 
maintenance of the government. 

The army, except the Rurales, is made up entirely 
of native Mexicans, whose pay, I was told, amounted 
to 17 cents per day, equal to 8i cents United States 
money; and many of them, I was also told, are long- 
term prisoners, men who have been sentenced for some 
crime, but who are allowed to serve their term in the 
army. 

Their uniform is modeled after that of the United 
States soldier's uniform of dark blue, and the old style 
cap. ^ 

Their duty is to serve in the regular ranks as well as 
to be the police of the country, the towns, and the cities, 



162 MEXICO. 



those performing police duty in the towns and cities 
wearing the uniform described; but the Rurales, the 
rural police, wear a gray uniform and a broadbrimmed 
hat; and, when not policing the trains, are usually 
mounted, and going two and two, so that wherever 
you find one, you will find another in the same vi- 
cinity. 

These Rurales are the pick of the army, as is said, 
being made up of the outlaws of the country, to whom 
amnesty was offered, if they would come in and join 
the army, which they did, after having demonstrated 
the inability of the government or the people to ex- 
terminate them. And thus we see the condition of 
Montezuma respecting the Tlascalans repeated in 
Diaz with the bandits and robbers. 

When these Rurales came into possession of open 
power, they, of course, killed all those who opposed 
them as robbers. This should have been foreseen. 

This arrangement of making the soldier the police 
also has the effect of extending the power of the gov- 
ernment, through the army, to the country and the 
whole country, town, city and country, making the 
government entirely military, so that, even if the peo- 
ple did possess civil rights and liberty to the extent 
of local self-government, or to any other extent, they 
have the strong arm of the military ever present and 
over them. 

The situation is now fully stated : Mexico is a mili- 
tary despotism, the most absolute. 

Republic, democracy, commonwealth, these names 
count for nothing, except to those satisfied with a 
sound. Some of the most absolute military despotisms 



POLITICAL. 163 



have attempted to cloak themselves with these sacred 
names. 

Oliver Cromwell, so far from establishing a common- 
wealth in England, maintained simply a pm-e military 
despotism; and the moment that the humanity of his 
son Richard relaxed its severity, and would neither 
countenance nor order the commission of murder, 
as his father's conscience always permitted him to do 
with great readiness, the scheme went to pieces. 

Caesar, under the guise of a more popular form of 
government, maintained, for a time, a military des- 
potism in Rome; and, likewise. Napoleon in France. 

The presence of militarism everywhere is, also, seen 
in the fact that President Diaz has a body-guard of 
about fifty mounted men, whom I once saw, in their 
fatigue uniform, everybody riding along in a sort of a 
go-as-you-please manner. This did not impress the 
republicanism of Mexico very forcibly upon me; but, 
before I had time to formulate a judgment, conditions 
at home reflected upon my mind; and, not only at 
home, but in Europe, that now a president is no safer 
as against assassins than monarchs have always been, 
showing that our present-day republics are drifting 
toward monarchies in their relation to the people. 

I had watched, with considerable interest, the work 
of the police in the towns and smaller cities, being much 
impressed with the efficiency of their work, under 
primitive methods, and altogether astounded at their 
humaneness, under trying circumstances, in view of 
what I had always been accustomed to in the United 
States; but, when I arrived at the City of Mexico, I 
was agreeably surprised as well as forcibly reminded 



164 MEXICO. 



of what I had read about the facility of the Aztecs to 
sound alarms or disseminate information, by seeing 
the police stand in the center of the intersection of the 
streets, with a lantern at night, so that, by signaling to 
one another, they can spread an alarm over the entire 
police district in a few seconds. This looks primitive, 
but no system of electric signaling could equal it as to 
time, efficiency and ease. 

With the government established, with money to 
run it, with soldiers to guard it, the least element is the 
law, and this now occupies attention. I will begin 
with the profession of the law and the lawyer; then 
statutory law; then unwritten law; then constitu- 
tional law; thus following an order neither historic 
nor philosophic, but, perhaps, suited to the case under 
consideration, which is Mexican. 

Contrary to the general rule, lawyers are very scarce 
in Mexico; and all, with but two exceptions,^ — one a 
native Mexican and the other a Frenchman, — were 
Spanish-Mexicans, whom I found to be very clever 
gentlemen ; and I would not want to think that they 
were like their Spanish brothers, described by Wash- 
ington Irving. 

The lawyer, like the doctor and the priest, must stand 
a great deal of abuse, which is often a well-merited con- 
demnation; but he, like the doctor, when you are sick, 
and the priests, when you commence to fear God, has 
his use, when he, like they, is trusted implicitly, as 
furnishing the only way of it. 

When we are not sued in the law ; when we are not 
sick ; and when we are not in danger of death, we need 
not lawyer or doctor or priest; but, let conditions 



POLITICAL. 165 



change, and see how quickly we call on all three, di- 
vulging our innermost secrets, reposing our utmost 
confidence, and indulging our expectations with im- 
plicit faith, looking not ultimately to justice, to health, 
or to God, but to our intermediary as our means to the 
end; and, not until all hope in acquiring success, 
health or heaven has vanished, do we abandon all 
three. 

In England and in the United States, where the 
common law, technically so called, is in force, legal 
volumes are reckoned by the carload, so that no in- 
dividual lawyer can now hope to possess anything but 
the most insignificant portion of them ; and, strange to 
think, all these books contain law, or, at least, what 
was a reality, and, sometimes, a terrible reality, to 
litigants who were so unfortunate as to get into court. 

In viewing a great law library, such as we now find 
at the capitals of the States, State libraries, I have 
recalled the saying of Socrates, as he passed through 
the market, "How much I see here that I do not 
want!" and, I have added, that I do not know; but 
to which I might well add the consolation, that I do 
not need to know, and which I might justly despise! 

Those of us who were cut out to be the preacher of 
the family, will recall how, when we first became recon- 
ciled to the fact, we started in to read all the books in 
the house, commencing at one corner of the family 
library, and proceeding regularly, as we would turn 
over a book, to the end, without reference to what book 
or what subject came first; and some of us actually 
completed the task ; and I am also afraid some of us 
never afterward attained that degree of wisdom to 



166 MEXICO. 



know not to proceed in after years upon the same 
method. 

When I commenced to read the law, I got the kind 
advice of an eminent gentleman, learned therein, who 
gave me a list of seven works, the reading of which he 
said would be sufficient to admit me to the bar. They 
were Blackstone, Kent, Greenleaf, Parsons, a local 
work on Pleading and Practice, and I have forgotten 
the other two, although I have still the list he gave me 
somewhere in my possession, but will not stop to hunt 
it. 

Comparing these works with the size of a law li- 
brary, I confess I was much astonished to find that so 
little was required to become a lawyer, and, at the time, 
then and there, and without delay, immediately, and 
on the spot, forming the resolution, in full legal phrase- 
ology, that I would read it all. 

Stripped to the waist, with hat in hand, I started off ; 
the wind soon fanned my hair on end ; my feet touched 
the ground but lightly at long intervals; and, as I 
neared the goal, I threw myself forward, falling and 
tearing up the ground, my finger just touching the 
mark. I had got there, but I had experienced a terri- 
ble fall. Not, however, satisfied, I picked myself up, 
spit the dirt out of my mouth, knocked the dust from 
my clothes, and ran the course over again, this time with 
less ardor, and without accident ; and again and again 
did I repeat this performance until it became such a 
matter of form that I was able to cover the course, 
even though half-asleep, and paying no attention to 
where I was going. I kept this up until I had read 
forty- two legal works, a list of which I also have, in- 
stead of the seven recommended to me, — just six times 



POLITICAL. 167 



the legal requirement. I was then admitted, but did 
not cease reading, although I quit keeping any account 
of what I read ; and it was not imtil several years later, 
that I awoke to the fact that, all the while, I had been 
devouring straw, common straw, which I hope my 
readers will not change to read common law. 

If anybody still has unlimited admiration for that 
grand heritage called the common law, or profound re- 
spect for the text-writers who have so much extolled 
it, I would like to refer him to the editions of Black- 
stone, before the American Revolution, where he will 
find the author swelling with pride that the institution 
of the common law is a heritage of every Englishman, 
not only shining like a halo around him at home, but 
following him, like a guardian angel, to the ends of 
the earth, ever ready to protect him. This is not the 
language used, as I am writing from memory, but it is 
a faithful reproduction of the idea, the law, as at that 
time enunciated by this greatest of all legal text- 
writers. 

The American Revolution came on; the common 
law had not changed; the American colonies claimed 
their heritage, the common law; England allowed 
them still the boast, but denied them the benefit; a 
new edition of Blackstone was issued, changing this 
text to read that the common law had never extended 
to the American colonies, although no judicial opinions 
to that effect had been rendered in the English courts, 
nor had parliament enacted any statute on the sub- 
ject. 

Although I read Coke, I must confess I can now re- 
call but one single thing contained in his works, and 
that is that the common law was wiser than any one 



168 MEXICO. 



man, as it was the combined wisdom of many men 
learned in the law, living at different periods of time. 

This sounds very nice, but cannot we all, without any 
trouble, recall many things, sanctioned by usage, time 
and greatness, which are yet evils, positive evils, in 
our midst? 

In the light of what has been said, what respect 
should we have for Blackstone? The answer is not 
very important, as the occasion for his change of text 
is now a closed incident ; but the point, the philosophy 
of the thing, important at all times, is, that interest 
makes the law. 

Not to pursue this matter too far, yet I want to say 
that all the American editions of Blackstone, which I 
have examined, give the post-Revolutionary version 
of the text, without any comment as to the change. 

Mexico takes her heritage of the law from Spain, 
coming to Spain from Rome, so that the principles of 
the civil law obtain. The civil law once prevailed, and 
still is not without its influence in all the countries 
conquered or dominated by the Roman Empire; and 
the greatest boast of Rome, at one time, was that she 
gave laws to the world, which, as a matter of fact, would 
have to be received with considerable modification. 

What the civil law was in the days of Roman do- 
minion would require a volume to exhibit; but the 
point of interest now is only its status or influence in 
Mexico ; and I will content myself by relating the facts 
only, as I found them in Mexico, without any attempt 
at the philosophy of the case, where my opinions would 
have no weight, even with those who do not know any- 



POLITICAL. 169 



thing about it, but who are always the hardest to con- 
vince. -' 

A lawyer, in Mexico, can open shop with but one 
book, the book of statutes or enacted law. No text- 
books, no reports, no digests, no encyclopedias, world 
without end, here; and not even the decisions of the 
supreme court of the nation are printed for the infor- 
mation of the legal profession or the public. No prec- 
edent Has been established, or exists in any matter. 
This is certainly a place where "The law is the law." 

A lawsuit must, necessarily, still be a lawsuit under 
this as well as under any other system. The com- 
plaint of the injured or aggrieved person is stated to a 
court, the evidence is heard, the lawyers argue, and 
the court decides. Every case is tried on its own 
merits, without precedent; and, if the decision is 
within any statute, that, of course, is applied ; but, if 
within the realm of all those rights and liabilities em- 
braced, with us, under the term common law, but 
civil law here, the case must be decided on the individ- 
ual requirements of justice. If, now, learning and 
philosophy fortify a judicial mind, the result must be as 
satisfactory as if founded on precedent, and not the 
sense of the judge. 

I am inclined to favor the civil-law rather than the 
common-law methods, granting, of course, that the 
ends of both are right and justice. 

In arriving at a decision of a case under the common 
law, all personal responsibility on the part of the judge 
may be, and, as decisions now go, usually is, avoided 
by deciding a case on precedent, which is often but a 
perpetuation of error; but, as the people only view a 
case from the standpoint of. right and wrong, they ap- 



170 MEXICO. 



ply these words to designate the result of a legal pro- 
ceeding. 

Under the civil law, the reason and the philosophy 
of the case must be gone into, and the decision rendered 
in harmony with its justice, which casts upon the judge 
a personal responsibility. 

The difference in the judicial mind engendered by 
the two methods needs only be hinted at; and the 
lawyer must have principles in his head, instead of 
books in his hand. 

The Virgin of Guadalupe, blindfolded, with the bal- 
ance in her hand, is the Goddess of Justice in Mexico ; 
and, in this attire, you will find her as a frontispiece 
in the statutebook, which carries one's mind back to 
her office as the Egyptian Isis. 

The civil law is a completed philosophic system, 
having passed through its age of faith and its age of 
experiment, and is now in the full vigor of its age of 
reason, beyond which, in this world, only the age of 
fact remains, which would seem to preclude the idea 
of law. 

The common law has passed its age of faith, and is 
now wavering between its age of experiment and its 
age of reason, in that transition state, where all things 
are uncertain, and where the greatest danger is always 
fraught, in the lives of systems as well as of individ- 
uals. 

A hke condition is seen in the moral world. The 
system of Confucius is fixed and coextensive with hu- 
man nature; and all others, whether called social, 
religious or metaphysical, are but chaos, and must come 
to extinction, whereas the system of Confucius, hav- 
ing to do only with human rights and duties, will last 



POLITICAL. 171 



as long as human rights and duties concern the race. 
Gods change, and are exchanged; but human rights 
and duties remain the same. 

While the United States has immensely too much 
written law, and too many common-law decisions in 
our books, yet I think Mexico is a Httle short ; not that 
I would increase the number of her enactments; but 
I would add to the lawyers' Hbraries the works of the 
great philosophers and historians; and I would, in 
this manner, inculcate the principles of human rights 
and duties. 

Nowhere, except in the Thieves' Market, did I see 
any legal works, except the book of statutes, and these 
were but a few American and Enghsh text-books on 
the elementary subjects, so that the little common 
law which has found its way into Mexico has fallen 
among thieves. 

The constitution of Mexico, in its form and pro- 
visions, is much hke that of the United States; but, 
in its practical operation, has no place in the affairs 
of the government ; and this is my reason for consider- 
ing it at the end, or as the last element in the law. 
Some of the facetious may here find an example, also, 
in the use to which the Bible is put in some of the 
churches to which their neighbors belong, while they 
themselves, of course, believe it all, and obey it all. 

Inasmuch as the constitution of Mexico bears no 
relation to the government, a review of its provisions 
would only lead to a misconception of the state of 
affairs as they actually exist, but would, also, be against 
the plan I announced, of only stating what may be 



172 MEXICO. 



seen upon the surface, or as the actual result of gov- 
ernmental operations. 

The Constitution of the United States must now be 
briefly noticed as to its composition. 

Even a casual reading of the Constitution of the 
United States discloses the fact that it was framed, 
not on the principle of equality, nor that the people 
should govern, but on the proposition of monarchy, 
that the government was one thing, and the people 
another, with antagonistic interests, and diverse pro- 
pensities ; that the tendency of the government would 
always be toward wisdom and justice, while that of 
the people would be towards disruption; that, in the 
system of fines and punishments, the principles of 
aristocracy are incorporated; but the right to vote is 
reserved to the people, thus forming a government 
made up of the leading principles of monarchy, aris- 
tocracy and democracy, moulded and given to the peo- 
ple under the name of repubhc, in which rights, im- 
munities and burdens are the correspondences of the 
three component parts of the government, where no 
one has any difficulty to find his place, with a facility 
not to be excelled in the clear-cut distinctions of caste 
in hereditary kingdoms. 

Having thus stated the general composite character 
of our constitution, I will only add that, in its practical 
operation, while adhered to, in most instances, in form, 
at least, yet falls very far short of expressing the will 
of the people, as party domination is everywhere pres- 
ent; and, as I can no more review its provisions than 
I could do so with those of the Mexican constitution, 
I will pass on to a mention of the proposed constitu- 
tion for the new State of Oklahoma, which will doubt- 



POLITICAL. 173 



less be the supreme law of that State, now Territory, 
before these words get into print. 

I have read this much-praised and much-abused 
constitution of Oklahoma, and I confess I am much 
taken with it, because it furnishes a form for the es- 
tablishment of a republican government, the first, so 
far as I know, to be established in the New World, 
a government where the people may rule, which can- 
not be said of any other state or of the national con- 
stitution ; a government where the people may express 
their will in the enactment of law as well as in the re- 
jection of that sought to be imposed upon them by 
their representatives, if objectionable; a constitution 
where the people may say who their officers shall be, 
and that they shall know their responsibilities; a 
constitution under which the individual and the faction 
can never predominate to the detriment of the people ; 
a salutary constitution. 

The tremendous opposition to this constitution, by 
individuals, interests and factions, where it alone finds 
enemies, is the greatest argument that it is in the inter- 
ests of the people ; and its great length has been stated 
as a chief objection to it; but, if the details it contains 
are good law, they are none the worse for being enacted 
in the constitution, where they will be taken from the 
field of legislative contention. 

As to the provisions of the constitutions of the vari- 
ous states of Mexico, or, indeed, whether or not they 
have any at all, never occurred to me, until I reached 
that part of my account; but, so far as the operation 
of the state governments is concerned, they are non- 
existent. 



174 MEXICO. 



As the election of a president to succeed Diaz will 
be the beginning of the future trouble in Mexico ; and, 
as that event is an ever-increasing anxiety with us, I 
will here review our own presidential elections, after 
first briefly mentioning those of Mexico. 

While I have not been able to verify the fact as fully 
as I desired, yet I feel safe in saying, that Mexico never 
did hold a presidential election under the constitution 
and the laws of the country. 

Passing over that period of turbulence, quite akin 
to anarchy, from 1821 to 1867, a review of which would 
belong only to a history of Mexico, when General Diaz, 
at the head of his army, entered the City of Mexico, 
which event marked the beginning of peace and a 
stable government, and during which period, I would be 
justified, from the very nature of human affairs, if no 
history existed, and even if written records were to the 
contrary, in asserting that the choice of the president 
was accompanied with the usual crises in affairs, if, 
indeed, it was not one, and that the chief cause, of 
poHtical strife, rebellions, and revolutions. 

After General Diaz had acted so great and patriotic 
a part in ridding Mexico of Maximilian and all he stood 
for, like many great military leaders, Washington alone 
excepted, he conceived an ambition for his own ag- 
grandizement, which, in monarchies, has always con- 
templated the establishment and perpetuation of a new 
dynasty, house, or ruling family; but, in repubUcs, 
only personal and immediate advantages, measured 
by position and money, are sought. 

Juarez was then president; but, at the next general 
election, Diaz was a candidate, and resented his defeat 
by a rebellion, which, however, assumed so much of 



POLITICAL. 175 



the character of a revolution as to place its leader at 
the head of the Mexican army as commander-in-chief, 
thus putting in his hands the very engine for the ac- 
compHshment of his designs; and, in 1876, General 
Diaz again entered the City of Mexico, not as a patriot, 
driving a usurper from the land, but as a revolutionist. 
He was declared, as the accounts I have examined say, 
without stating by whom, or by what authority, first, 
president, then, constitutional president, holding the 
ofiice until the next election, when General Manuel 
Gonzales was elected, at the expiration of whose term 
in 1884, Diaz was again elected, and has held the office 
up to the present time, 1907, and will doubtless con- 
tinue for life. 

The presidential term, in Mexico, was first four years, 
but recently changed to eight years at the request of 
Diaz. 

With that degree of certainty called calculation, I 
feel justified in asserting, that the successor of Diaz 
will be, by a majority only, declared president in the 
same manner as Diaz himself is made to succeed him- 
self, without effort or intermission; but the period of 
this successor will be brief, and the future only knows 
the rest. 

A part of what I have just said has also been stated 
in the sketch of President Diaz, but could not be omit- 
ted in referring to the election of the president. 

The election of a chief magistrate of a country, under 
any form of government, always creates a political 
crisis, as the least expression of unrest, and revolution 
may be given as the other extreme, with all gradations 
between; and, as this event is one of increasing im- 



176 MEXICO. 



portance in the United States, I will dwell upon it at 
some length. 

Washington, as an individual, and not the represent- 
ative of any poHtical faith, was unanimously chosen 
first President of the United States. 

He was, also, unanimously chosen for a second term, 
but the inevitable had happened, and around him and 
his principles a pohtical party had been formed ; and, 
this time, he was chosen as a Federahst ; and, although 
during his second term, he did not always have a party 
majority in Congress to support his federahstic doc- 
trines, yet his political opponents, with a patriotism, 
perhaps, never before, and certainly never since, 
equaled, supported his measures. 

The opposing party, however, was all the while 
gathering strength which it intended to use, and did 
use, at the election of John Adams, as successor to 
Washington, poUing the second highest vote, thus 
naming Thomas Jefferson, its acknowledged leader, 
as the vice-president, that being the provision of the 
constitution at that time. 

So great was the opposition to the Federal party, 
that the completing of the term of President Adams 
marked not only its defeat but its extinction, also. 

Jefferson now succeeded for two terms, and the anti- 
Federal party, under the name of Repubhcan, contin- 
ued in power to the election of General Jackson. 

During this term of nearly forty years of Federal and 
anti-Federal administrations, the extreme of the doc- 
trines represented by Washington and Jefferson re- 
spectively met in a happy compromise in the minds 
of the people, an exceedingly great fortune, the more 
appreciable because so seldom resulting from such 



POLITICAL. 177 



determined political oppositions, so that the poHtical 
status now obtaining is a compound of the principles of 
Washington and Jefferson; but so profound and last- 
ing have been the principles of Jefferson, that they 
have ever since been the slogan of one or other of the 
political parties in the government, while the principles 
of Washington have never been bodily adopted or 
actively advocated by any of the political parties seek- 
ing control. Washington and his great principles 
have ahke crystallized in history, and those principles 
were then as right as their author is great, while those 
of Jefferson, suited for all time, have become a per- 
petual heritage. 

The interest manifest in the election of a President 
following Jefferson became less intense until the elec- 
tion of General Jackson, whose reputation depended 
chiefly upon his success at the battle of New Orleans, 
after peace had been declared, where the British army, 
under incompetent commanders, presented itself in 
soUd phalanges, to be slaughtered by the Americans, 
strongly entrenched behind bales of cotton, protected 
by a ditch; and twice did they present themselves 
to be mowed down without mercy by the deadly fire 
of the Americans, without being able to inflict any 
injury upon their antagonists. 

Great must have been the vulgarity of the times 
after such a slaughter, to have called General Jackson 
a pork-packer, because he fought with Packenham. 
The punster here finds a just comparison with the can- 
nibal. 

The next exciting presidential campaign was that 
which resulted in the election of General Harrison, 
the most enthusiastic ever occurring in our history, an 



178 MEXICO. 



enthusiasm bordering on levity, and, almost, license; 
but without the bitter feeling and intense personal 
animosities which so disgrace subsequent campaigns. 
By one of those strange coincidences, so often, in his- 
tory, mistaken for causes, Harrison's chief celebrity 
consisted, as Jackson's had, in having fought an in- 
significant battle, this time even with savages. 

Following Harrison, we again come to a time, when 
men's minds, on political questions, seem to have 
assumed sanity, until we reach the great and incompa- 
rable events preceding as well as following the election 
of Abraham Lincoln. 

The close of the terms of Lincoln brings me to the 
time when I have a definite recollection of events; 
but I want to give assurance that I will be brief, and 
attempt no connected history, only referring to those 
great facts calculated to support the conclusion I 
expect to draw. 

I wish, however, to state, that I believe the proper 
way to write history is by subjects, and that a history 
of the United States, by that method, giving the elec- 
tion of the presidents connectedly, and so with all 
other subjects, while, Hke this book, would require 
considerable repetition, would yet place the matter 
before the mind so that it could be best remembered 
and appreciated, and thus history would cease to be a 
conglomeration of events. I promise, some day, to 
write such a history; but if an3^one seize upon my 
design, and anticipate me, he will do me a great favor, 
if he do his work well, as he will save me much labor 
in collecting and arranging the material. History, 
in its very nature, is such, that after ten thousand 



POLITICAL. 179 



works have been written, the best may still be pro- 
duced. 

I must; also, observe, before coming to the days of 
my recollection, that the difference between the prin- 
ciples of Washington and of Jefferson was due entirely 
to the profession of arms of the one, and of the forum 
of the other; and that we today attach too much 
importance to their individuality, as determining their 
doctrines. 

Washington, a soldier under primitive conditions, 
fell, without effort, into the habit of absolute command ; 
while Jefferson, a statesman among oppressed and 
suffering people, "unconsciously imbibed a sympathy 
for their condition. Both were needed in their own 
peculiar provinces; and subsequent events brought, 
to a happy concurrence and consolidation, in the gov- 
ernment, those principles, once so apparently antago- 
nistic, and the new order of things thus assumed a 
direction as the compound result of these opposing 
forces. 

Now, for the time of my recollection; and I will 
confine myself to stating points of objection on which 
controversies occurred, having special reference to the 
turbulency and dangers accompanying the presidential 
elections. 

The first and second elections of Grant would have 
come to any party nominating him, however much it 
might have differed from him in political creed or gov- 
ernmental policy; and, therefore, the Democratic 
party, by the shortsightedness of its leaders and the 
tardiness of their action, allowed the Republican 
party to steal its candidate, a candidate inevitable of 
election, and anxious for adoption. 



180 MEXICO. 



Such is politics, and such the methods of politicians ; 
but I have no serious objections to the man, since he 
proved as able a president as he had been a general, 
until I reach his third-term aspirations, and then I 
object, and I object loudly; I object to the principle, 
as subversive of the tradition of Washington and 
Jefferson, and the unwritten law coming down to us 
with the approval of other great names; I object to 
the policy, as in conflict with the sense of respect 
which we derive from adherence to the conduct of 
the great; I object to the methods, as subversive of 
our individuality; I object to the deed, as of one 
who has lost sight of the people, and seeks only his 
own aggrandizement; I object to the persistency, as 
egotistic ; I object now to the man, as a schemer; and 
I object to the whole performance, as a design against 
the form of our government and the rights and pre- 
rogatives of the people ; and I assert that wealth and 
power are now corruptly sought at the expense of that 
Nation he was once so anxious to serve. 

Without my suggestions, the reader will readily 
catalogue examples where men of poor and small es- 
tate satisfied their first ambition in the service of their 
country, but whose last ambition aimed at the state. 

Then came President Hayes, of unknown fame, who 
ended his life as obscurely as he had begun and lived 
it, in raising chickens, an honest calling, so that even 
politicians may sometimes have a happy consumma- 
tion. 

On account of the closeness of the vote and disputed 
returns, given as the excuse, in the election of Hayes, 
the Constitution of the United States was violated in 
the choice of a president, which was referred to a com- 



POLITICAL. 181 



mittee of fifteen, consisting of eight Republicans and 
seven Democrats, and these, disregarding every prin- 
ciple, except that of party affiliation, voted accordingly. 

Thus ended, by intrigue, which better satisfies men's 
minds than fairness, the greatest political controversy 
growing out of the election of any president, except 
Lincoln. 

Some appropriateness often seems to accompany 
events, and Hayes is succeeded by Garfield, a compro- 
mise candidate, also, from the same State, of equal 
obscurity, but questionable honesty, forgotten, how- 
ever, in sorrow for his long suffering and death at the 
hands of an assassin. 

Arthur, not being elected. president, but succeeding, 
as vice-president, on the death of Garfield, does not 
count in this scheme. 

Cleveland, with no other recommendation than that 
he could probably carry New York, and with no other 
reputation than that of a State politician, succeeded. 

Benjamin Harrison follows, elected entirely on the 
reputation of his grandfather, who had also served the 
brief period of one month as President of the United 
States. 

Cleveland now appears for a second term, because the 
Democratic party needed a Moses; but, this time, he 
did not lead the Children of Israel, but betook himself 
to the hosts of Pharaoh. 

Then appears McKinley, upon whose name there is 
no stain, twice elected, whose tragic death has endeared 
his name to the memory of the people. 

The second election of McKinley, however, needs 
special mention, by reason of the acts of the minority 
in Congress, which endeavored to precipitate the war 



182 MEXICO. 



with Spain before the country was ready to prosecute 
it, in order to embarrass the President; and, after 
they had secured the declaration of war, then used 
every means to obstruct its prosecution, and bring it 
to a disgraceful end, — all for party politics. 

If anyone believes the country safe in the hands of 
party politicians, let him believe it in the light of this 
fact, if he can ; and I assure him of my sympathy for 
his condition besides. 

Roosevelt last and now; but, as he was placed on 
the ticket for the purpose of carrying New York, he 
must be considered as active in the campaign resulting 
in the second election of McKinley, and also in the ca- 
pacity of candidate at the next succeeding election. 

As everybody has an opinion of his own about 
Roosevelt, I can, therefore, add nothing. 

The kind of money we should have was the great 
public contention in the campaign resulting in Mc- 
Kinley 's first election, which principle was as well 
understood by the farmers as by the financiers and 
economists, as illustrated by the farmer who came to 
the railway station at Elmont, Kansas, while the Dem- 
ocratic convention was sitting, and asked the tele- 
graph operator what the convention had done, where- 
upon he was told that Bryan had been nominated, 
at which the farmer asked, "Does that mean that we 
will now have free silver?" The operator replied, "I 
guess so." The farmer then asked, "Will we have to 
come into town for it, or will they bring it out to us?" 

By the time of McKinley's second election, these 
monetary hallucinations had almost disappeared from 
the troubled brain of the afflicted; and had been 
thought to have been dead, or, at least, inert, until the 



POLITICAL. 183 



campaign of Roosevelt, when, just as the earth had 
been closed over them, a deep sepulchral groan issued 
from the grave of their forgetfulness ; and, like Samuel, 
called again to earth by a familiar spirit, disgustingly 
asked why their rest had been disturbed. 

In this outline, I have done little, except call names, 
which must stand for events, as a review of the matters 
in controversy, some of them the most trivial and silly, 
would require entirely too much time and space, and 
carry me too far out of my course. 

Now, as to the losses, disasters and dangers growing 
out of presidential elections in the United States. 
Agitation in general business conditions of the country 
come first, then depression, then cessation ; and, when 
the contest becomes heated, everything is at stand- 
still immediately preceding the election, awaiting the 
result; farmers think, as the result may be one way 
or the other, that the prices of their products will be- 
come ruinous, and they quit work, spending their time 
in town talking politics with men of less intelhgence 
and information; manufacturers retrench, take no 
more orders, and some shut down as a warning to the 
pubhc, in general, and their employes, in particular, of 
the result, should the election be the cause of institut- 
ing a pohcy not in harmony with their ideas, or, what 
is worse to them, would hkely deprive them of an unfair 
advantage, now enjoyed under a system giving them 
special privileges and protection; railroad companies, 
heretofore least of all affected by changes in govern- 
mental poHcies, have been the greatest campaigners, 
through their attorneys, who handle this part of the 
business as their own personal schemes, to the very 
great detriment of the properties, and the discredit of 



184 MEXICO. 



the roads; and the present state of affairs in the rail- 
road world can be considered in no other light than the 
normal reaction of the people against the political 
aggressions of the roads themselves, perpetrated by the 
attorneys of the roads for their own personal gain, 
carried to the extent of ruining the credit of the roads 
in the outrages constantly heaped upon the people. 
The great army of employes of all industries^ thus 
thrown out of work, with no means of support, suffer, 
and, justly become desperate, ending in a well-founded 
distrust of, then an opposition to, both capital and 
government, because they see their distresses directly 
attributable to the joint and concurrent action of both. 
The tradesman next suffers in a decrease in the amount 
of his business, loss in accounts of those themselves 
ruined, and in extensions of doubtful credits. 

A government which periodically creates such general 
disaster in the business affairs of the country, on the 
election of a president, is bad; the government of the 
United States does this; and, therefore, the govern- 
ment of the United States, in this particular, is bad. 

Having arrived at the conclusion of the existence of 
this bad condition, with all the certainty of a syllo- 
gism, the next inquiry should be for remedies, which 
are found to be very numerous, but no specific has yet 
been discovered. 

The evil is, first, and, chiefly, in proportion to the 
length of the term, for life or years, short or long, as, 
universally, people submit with a better grace to a 
short than a long term of evil, and, in a very important 
sense, all government is an evil, the term should be 
short. 

Secondly, the evil bears a direct relation to the ex- 



POLITICAL. 185 



tent of the prerogatives of the chief executive; and, 
therefore, these prerogatives should be curtailed. 

The extent of the shortening of the term and the 
curtailment of power must be left to experiment; 
but the certainty now is, that the one should be short- 
ened and the other curtailed. The manner of doing 
this is, also, all-important: No president should be 
allowed a second term; because, as now appears, the 
chief executive uses his first term to secure a second 
almost always in the face of a denial, made in his in- 
augural address, that he favors but a single term, which 
people now know how to value at its true worth ; and 
not only the acts of the president, but those of the pre- 
vaihng party, as his second or leader, proceed, through 
the entire administration, with no other purpose in 
view than reelection; the government of the country, 
if not lost sight of entirely, becomes a secondary con- 
sideration, while political control always remains the 
first. 

Does this show that our government is good, and 
laid along the right lines? 

The indirect mode of election, through a college, 
entirely failed in the accomplishment of the purpose 
claimed and intended; has always been a failure; 
and should, therefore, be discontinued. A popular, 
direct vote would be better in that it would remove 
the expense and delay of indirection, but would, other- 
wise, produce the same general results, so that, either 
an indirect or a direct popular choice is bad. 

The unfair and dishonest means employed by the 
party leaders, and, by the presidents themselves, 
when they conduct their own campaigns, for a first, 
but, especially, for a second term, I mention as the 



186 MEXICO. 



last, but, by no means, the least, or all the evils of 
the case; and I have reserved this one for the last, 
because now the greatest. If half a million is wanted 
on the eve of the election to make New York sure, a 
half -million is forthcoming; and, further, I swear 
not. 

Having thus stated a few of the greater evils, Hke 
the symptons of a dire disease, and suggested, as I 
progressed, provisional arrangements, like diet, a bath, 
a clean bed, pure air and sunlight, to the sick, the 
malady has yet been unprovided for; and, thus, death 
is only delayed, not counteracted or warded off. 

From what has been said, the election of a president 
by universal suffrage, whether direct or indirect, is dis- 
astrous and improper ; an election by the States would 
be still worse; and, elections by conventions of the 
people would doubtlessly be impossible, or, if possible, 
insupportable. 

Now, facing the question squarely, the election of 
the President of the United States should be by the 
Congress of the United States from among the members 
of that body, which should, in that event, be wholly 
elected by the people of the various States, composed 
of members whose qualifications were equal to the pres- 
idential requirement. 

Details for the orderly prosecution of such a scheme 
would not be difficult of arrangement. 

Those, who feel themselves completely committed 
to the government of the majority, would here find 
little objection, because the party in the majority in 
the country would necessarily have a majority in Con- 
gress, and thus control the election. 

Party domination, however, I regard as the very 



POLITICAL. 187 



greatest evil of our system of government ; and I now 
propose a plan for establishing and keeping that equi- 
librium between political parties, so necessary to the 
proper and orderly conduct of affairs in an enlightened 
republic ; and it may be as novel as original : 

I would have all the members of the Congress of the 
United States elected by a direct vote of the people of 
the various States, in the same manner in which our 
state legislatures are elected ; every one of these mem- 
bers should have the qualifications of the presidential 
requirements; and the president should be chosen 
from among the minority. 

This sounds ridiculous only because new, as men used 
to be laughed out of society, when announcing scien- 
tific discoveries ; but the scheme grows with considera- 
tion, and develops with attention. 

I would, also, provide a term of moderate length 
for the president and his cabinet; and, what is, by 
no means, new, would have them removable on a vote 
of confidence, and never ehgible to a second term. 

This would, not only create and maintain that 
much-desired equilibrium, so necessary between po- 
litical parties, but would, also, place the government, 
at all times, under the control of Congress, existing 
and holding, as to individual members, under the 
suffrage of circumscribed communities; and, as a 
last safeguard, I would give these circumscribed com- 
munities the right of a vote of confidence, at any time, 
on the conduct of the representatives they had elected. 

The people would then rule, provided they had the 
choice of selection, which they do not now have, under 
the system of nominations by conventions, which give 
the people the right of party suffrage only, and never 



188 MEXICO. 



the choice of the individual in that party, with the 
result that our offices are filled with men who could 
never secure them, if the people named the candidates 
as well as elected them. The system of primaries, as 
now existing, applies almost everywhere, to municipal 
and township affairs only, while the County, State and 
National committees constitute the indirect governing 
boards of the country. 

We thus see that our governmental operations are 
subject to two indirections — ^from the people to the 
committees, thence to the officers; and, if we get 
anything in return, this course must be retraced, so 
that, in reality, the road from the people to their officers 
and back has four turns. 

Who said we had a republic ? and. Where is that man 
who has been crying democracy? 

The people are seeking, against the determined re- 
sistance of the politicians, a rehef from this error, 
through the institution of direct primaries for the nam- 
ing of candidates for all offices, an experiment, indeed, 
but, already, showing signs of success. 

The legislature of a free government should never be 
under pressure of the executive, but the executive 
ought rather be under the control of the legislative, 
in turn, under the control of the people; then we are 
approaching republican institutions, which we cannot 
now be said to possess, except in name only ; and, with 
the legislature, as the dominating element in the gov- 
ernment, the people, have the means of expressing 
their will, impossible of attainment, where the legisla- 
ture is weak and the executive strong, as with us now ; 
because no executive either has the desire or the capac- 



POLITICAL. 189 



ity to comprehend all the multifarious wants of the 
people, which they can easily make known to the law- 
makers selected by them, and under their control. 

Medieval Europe, comprising, as I divide the times, 
that period from the fall of the Roman empire to the 
French revolution at the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, furnishes many curious and amusing instances 
of what a legislative assembly will do under pressure 
of executive prerogatives ; and our own times have not 
been lacking in Hke instances. 

So far as I know, no legislative body ever enacted 
that temperature should be divided into cold, warm, 
and hot, and that, under given conditions, a tribunal 
should determine which one of these degrees prevailed ; 
but the Congress of the United States, at its last session, 
under executive pressure, invading the domain of 
philosophy, and, on precisely the same principle, en- 
acted that negligence was shght, ordinary, and gross, 
and that a jury should determine, under conditions to 
be given, which one, at the time, prevailed. 

Both temperature and neghgence have their degrees, 
which are always relative, and never arbitrary; the 
scale of both is continuous and unbroken; and our 
divisions are only imaginary. 

To be philosophic, we must examine for causes; 
but, under this act of Congress, we need only consider 
events. If the jury says, '^This spring is cold," al- 
though bubbling in clouds of steam, this constitutes 
legal coldness; if the jury finds that ''This ice is hot," 
its legal status is thus determined; and, if, again, the 
jury determines that ''This water is both cold and 
hot," the majesty of the law has again been upheld. 

Negligence, as slight, ordinary and gross, in like 



190 MEXICO. 



manner, becomes matter of caprice as to legal classifi- 
cation only, instead of being regarded as operating 
cause. 

If a man be drowned, he is as dead, whether the water 
be cold, warm, or hot; and the immediate operating 
cause is the water ; but the case depends upon whether 
or not he got into the water by his own fault, which 
gives us an insight into the true relation of human 
conduct. 

If an engineer is killed in a collision, he is as dead, 
whether by slight, ordinary or gross negligence; and 
the immediate operating cause is the collision; but 
the case depends upon whether or not he caused the 
collision, which leads us into an inquiry on the relation 
of causes. 

We, therefore, see that relation and not degree is the 
law of negligence as much as of temperature, and that 
the difference is as the orderly course of nature differs 
from the arbitrary classifications of man. 

We have all read and heard a great deal about our 
sister republic of Mexico; but we must disabuse our 
minds of that delusion. However much, Hke the httle 
boy, we have been looking for a sister, we are disap- 
pointed; and I cannot say but that, on learning the 
fact, I experienced the feeUng of the disappointed little 
boy; but we have all heard, also, of this same little 
boy who was glad only once, and sorry ever after; 
and, even in this, I fancy I might have found for my- 
self a parallel, in view of what I afterwards learned. 

Latin-American republics is a familiar expression, 
but most misleading, because the small proportion of 



POLITICAL. 191 



''Latins" in these countries does not entitle them to 
any such designation. 

I am sure that in Mexico, and I beheve that in the 
other so-called Latin-American countries, the propor- 
tion of the population of Spanish descent is too small 
to be entitled to the distinction of giving a name to the 
government, and, also, that they have neither legal, 
equitable nor moral right to govern. 

The natives, in all these countries, were subjugated 
by cruel, murderous conquerors; and, in Mexico, and 
in Peru, in particular, the natives were murdered by the 
milHons. (See Prescott's ''Conquests" of these coun- 
tries, and Draper's Intellectual Development.") 

The constant state of uprisings, rebellions and revo- 
lutions in these countries is due to the contentions be- 
tween factions of the Spanish- American population for 
control of the government ; and, if this Spanish- Amer- 
ican element were subdued, as it should be, and as it 
has been in Mexico, peace would prevail. 

The natives should rise, and take possession of the 
government, and reclaim their lands; because the 
Spaniards, without any show of right, and with no 
other purpose than robbery, took from them the lands 
and the whole country, reducing the natives to slavery, 
still existing, I am informed, under the name of peon- 
age, in some of these countries, but wiped out of Mexico 
some years ago. 

I was on what was said to be the largest hacienda in 
Mexico, owned by a single individual, the acreage of 
which I could not give, because, not only the acre is 
not the unit of land measure in Mexico, but also be- 
cause this tract is too large to be reckoned by acres, 
on which live about seven thousand men with their 



192 MEXICO. 



families. Now, if the families average five each, the 
total number would be thirty-five thousand people, 
all Hving on the premises of one man; and, until the 
discontinuance of peonage, were practically his indi- 
vidual property. 

Most of these people still Hve there, on about the 
same terms, and in about the same condition, as under 
their former relation, with this exception, that the 
owner now pays them wages varying from 25 cents to 
$1.50 per month Mexican money, equal to 12| cents 
and 75 cents our money, respectively. 

The people, in addition to these munificent salaries, 
get their Hving off the place, as formerly, so that they 
might all be capitahsts, if they placed these sums on 
deposit, for which they have no immediate use; and 
might thus be great benefactors, to the pubHc at large, 
and to the bankers in particular, in distressing times, 
to reheve the money stringency of the country. 

In the great financial crisis of the latter part of Octo- 
ber and the fore part of November, 1907, on account of 
the stringency of money, our bankers seem to be al- 
most the object of our charity; and, although they 
had been pubhshing for a year or more that their 
banks were bursting, not from emptiness this time, but 
from plethoric fullness, all at once, the country over, 
they shut their doors, to keep the flood in they told us ; 
but, when they did commence to open the sluices, it 
was with such reserve as not even to wet the channel of 
commerce, making us believe that they would appre- 
ciate the deposits of a man who was making 12^ cents 
a day. ^ 



CHAPTER VI. 
SOCIAL. 

Our individual social existence, beginning at birth, 
is closely followed by the operation of physiological 
functions and the demonstration of physical principles, 
all occurring and succeeding without our volition and 
knowledge, continue through our purely vegetating 
period, after which we observe celestial phenomena, 
and then deduce laws. 

These five departments of our life, ever progressing, 
but never merging, correspond with the five branches 
of our knowledge, the social, the physiological, the 
physical, the astronomical, and the mathematical, the 
last being but the conclusions drawn from all the others. 

By extending this classification beyond the life of 
man, we have the biological in its largest sense, the 
physiological of animal and vegetable, the physical 
of organic and inorganic, the astronomical of terrestrial 
and celestial, and the mathematical, concrete and ab- 
stract, so that all things and all knowledge are even- 
tually reducible to correspondences with the five de- 
partments of our lives. 

The laws of pure mathematics are well defined, and 
seem absolute, but the demonstration of the concrete 
requires a differential element ; terrestrial astronomy is 
well understood, but the celestial is sometimes entan- 
gled with hypotheses; the physical of organic and 
[193] 



194 MEXICO. 



inorganic, though not fully explored, has yet had the 
operation of its principles determined; and the same 
is, also, true of the physiological ; but of the social, we 
cannot say that we have a science, although the ma- 
terial for investigation and demonstration has always 
been present and accessible. The things nearest us 
are last seen, appreciated, or understood. 

Upon the social state, the first, the continuing, and 
the last, in order of time, the greatest, in relation of 
quantity, and the most potent in the activity of our 
existence, I now enter. 

As the social science has not yet been written, I need 
not advise the reader that he will not discover it, as he 
peruses these pages. All I can do is to recount a few 
facts which I have observed, and to draw such conclu- 
sions, as, in my judgment, the conditions will warrant. 

In the largest sense, the social state embraces all our 
lives, and the operation of this principle furnishes me 
a proper excuse for embracing so many things in this 
chapter which might, with equal impropriety, be classed 
elsewhere ; but the small number of divisions to which 
I have confined myself compels me to a faulty class- 
ification to bring everything within the five or six 
phases of human existence and relations announced 
at the beginning of the work. 

All of us are familiar with the great controversies, 
lasting for a period of nearly two thousand years, over 
the geocentric and heliocentric theories ; how that 
men suffered martyrdom for the scientific fact, as 
others had for religious truths ; how that, in the prog- 
ress of investigations, every new point gained was met 
with the whole battery of the opposition, always on 
the increase; how that the fact was eventually ascer- 



SOCIAL. 195 



tained, and demonstrated; how the opposition was 
silenced; but retained its position and force to use 
again, and, always, when occasion arises. This is the 
history of all great facts, long and difficult of ascer- 
tainment. 

The origin of the human race is a kindred question, 
and has been a kindred controversy, passing, as far 
as it has come, along the same road, and sometimes in 
company, with the other, having now reached the 
station where its fate, in the hands of religion, is settled 
on authority ; in the hands of the indolent, on impos- 
sibility; while science, sitting calmly by, awaits the 
issue. 

Aristotle, who seems to have known more than all the 
rest of the world, both before and since his time, said, 
in respect to the questions concerning the relation of 
the earth to the universe, that investigation had not 
then secured enough of facts to make controversy 
on the subject profitable. 

Now, this is about the condition of the controversy 
respecting the origin of the human race; and while I 
do not intend to become controversial, I, at least, want 
to offer some suggestions, always, I hope, allowable on 
obscure questions whose solutions would be both inter- 
esting and profitable. 

I want to call attention to the existence, equidistant 
from the Isthmus of Panama, of the ancient, populous 
and civilized countries of Peru on the south and Mexico 
on the north; the evidence of civilization between; 
and that all the remainder of the Western Hemisphere, 
with its adjacent islands, except a few Esquimaux 
at the extreme north, was thinly inhabited by a kindred 
people in various phases of savage life in harmony with 



196 MEXICO. 



the climatic conditions in which they lived ; that, with 
increase of distance from the great centers of the an- 
cient population, comes more pronounced difference in 
the people; and that the aborigines of many islands 
of the Atlantic and the Pacific bear a close resemblance 
to the aborigines of the continent. This shows radia- 
tion from, and not convergence to, a center. 

I want also to call attention to the fact of what easy 
gradations are found, on starting with this great center 
of population in Peru and Mexico, passing westward, 
as we might expect the fishing-canoes to be drifted 
by the tradewinds, or carried by the great equatorial 
current, reaching the many islands dotting the Pacific, 
then the great islands of Polynesia, from which we have 
only a step to make to the mainland of Asia, thence 
spreading over eastern Asia to the Arctic regions, 
thence eastward across Behring's Strait, thence over 
North America to Mexico, thus completing the circuit. 
In this scheme, the passage of Behring's Strait, whether 
eastward or westward, or in both directions, at differ- 
ent times, becomes immaterial; because, if man did 
first come to Mexico from the north, he afterward, in 
the present determining force, made the circuit, from 
Mexico and Peru, by the equatorial Pacific, thence 
north along eastern Asia, thence to Behring's Strait, 
thence south to Mexico, as before stated ; so that, if the 
journey I have here outlined was not, in fact, the first 
movement, it was, nevertheless, as certainly made. 

Had Captain Cook not had the circumnavigation of 
the globe and return to Great Britain in view, he would, 
doubtless, have taken the same course. 

The movement or migration by the equatorial cur- 
rent and by the aid of the tradewinds is the more prob- 



SOCIAL. 197 



able, also, by reason of the fact that migrations by 
water, either voluntary or forced, have been the more 
common among ancient peoples. 

Coming back now to Polynesia, in this great race 
movement, another branch extended thence to Austra- 
lia. 

I want finally to call attention to the relation exist- 
ing in the color of the people of the quarters of the 
world mentioned; that the distinctions of copper 
color, brown, red, yellow, are misleading, as anyone 
who has seen all these races will testify, and who knows 
the modifications always produced in the same race, 
living under different conditions of sanitation, sunlight, 
heat, and moisture. 

I want now to assert that the existence of the great 
equatorial current and the tradewinds, always flowing 
and blowing westward, is sufficient to account for the 
distribution, over that portion of the globe mentioned, 
of a people inhabiting from Mexico to Peru ; and that, 
if these people did come to the Western Hemisphere 
by way of Behring's Strait, they afterward emigrated 
across the Pacific, as I have explained, then spreading 
over Polynesia and Australia to the south and eastern 
Asia on the north to the Arctic regions, thence by way 
of Behring's Strait, thus completing the circuit, as 
before stated. 

I am not prepared to believe that the islands of the 
Pacific were discovered and settled by people who made 
their way against the equatorial current and the trade- 
winds ; and I give the same reason as explaining why 
the aborigines of America did not pass eastward, across 
the Atlantic, and settle in Africa. 

The completion of this scheme, also, requires that I 



198 MEXICO. 



account for the failure of the people of Africa to have 
drifted westward, with the equatorial current and 
tradewinds, to South America, which I will now do: 

While the distance from Africa westward to South 
America is very much less than that from South Amer- 
ica westward to Asia, yet the Atlantic, between Africa 
and South America, in the zone of the equatorial cur- 
rent and the tradewinds, is altogether free from is- 
lands, but the Pacific, between South America and 
Asia, in the same zone, is studded with islands, thus 
making the voyage across the Pacific, by primitive 
methods, the more easy. 

For still another reason why the aborigines of Africa 
did not drift westward across the Atlantic to South 
America, I mention the fact that the great current 
which comes from the Indian Ocean, sweeping west- 
ward around the Cape of Good Hope, enters the south 
Atlantic and flows in a northwesterly direction until 
it joins the Atlantic equatorial current, whence the 
two currents, thus joined, flow in a more westerly di- 
rection until nearing the coast of South America, where, 
by reason of the direction of the coastline of that con- 
tinent, the consoUdated current is now deflected to the 
northwest parallel with the northeast coast of Brazil, 
thence entering the Caribbean Sea, thence almost en- 
circling the Gulf of Mexico, emerging at the point of 
Florida, thence in a northeasterly direction parallel 
with the east coast of North America to the Banks of 
Newfoundland, thence spreading out in a wide and 
slow current, flows eastward across the Atlantic against 
the west coast of Europe, and dividing, one branch to 
the north losing itself in Arctic waters to the north of 
Europe, while the other branch, flowing south along 



SOCIAL. 199 



the west coast of Europe, joins the Atlantic equatorial 
current, to again make the circuit; so that neither 
from the west coast of Europe nor from the west coast 
of Africa north of the equator are the ocean currents 
favorable for drifting from the Eastern to the Western 
Hemisphere. 

The west coast of Africa is almost barren and rain- 
less, and yet but very sparsely settled, so that, during 
the period under consideration, an entire lack of pop- 
ulation, or nearly so, might be assumed. 

The aborigines of Africa have never been seamen; 
and, no doubt, as primitive men, they loved ease even 
more than now. 

As a last reason, I mention the disposition, almost in- 
stinct, of that race, to shrink from imaginary, rather 
than real dangers, with which the ocean, to primitive 
man, has always teemed. 

Much has been said respecting the similarity of the 
civihzations of Mexico and Peru with those of Egypt, 
accompanied with the assumption, that, as we have 
known of Egypt longer than of Mexico and Peru, 
Egypt must, therefore, be the older, and that commu- 
nication, at some former time, existed between these 
countries ; but, I attach little importance to correspon- 
dences in the civilization and monuments of one people 
to connect them in race or influence with another. 
Children, playing in the sand, in all countries and cli- 
mates, at all times, have built it into heaps; when 
grown, they then constructed mounds, which later 
assumed definite forms; if raised in the desert, or a 
field, they would naturally be round; but, if built 
within a city, laid out in squares, they would necessa- 
rily be square also ; and thus we see the evolution of 



200 MEXICO. 



the pyramid, which does not depend upon the acts of a 
particular man or nation, but upon the nature and 
constitution of man. 

These same children, having built their heaps of 
sand, have placed sticks or twigs in the top; and, 
perceiving the effect, the importance of the base is 
diminished, and the obelisk, the shaft, the tombstone, 
have arisen. 

These child's playthings are first "Mine" and 
"Yours"; then labeled "Tommy" and "Elsie," so 
that we here see the origin of inscriptions. 

From it all, we see children, in their very first act of 
design, building their tombs. 

Before leaving this subject, I want also to assert 
that natural causes, when affording a full and satis- 
factory explanation of a fact, should be disregarded 
only when the case in question is accounted for by 
positive grounds to the contrary. Our reason should 
follow the channels of nature. 

This scheme does not account for all the inhabitants 
of our globe; and I have no intention of pressing it 
beyond the fact. 

I am convinced that the aborigines of Africa are in- 
digenous to the low equatorial portion of that continent ; 
emigrating thence to the high altitudes and temperate 
cHmate of Abyssinia, the same change in mode of life 
would occur, as doubtless did occur, to the peoples of 
Peru and Mexico, in passing from the low land of the 
isthmus ; that from Abyssinia, the passage by the Nile 
is easy and natural, and must have occurred, account- 
ing for the dark skins and curly hair of the ancient in- 
habitants of upper Egypt. 

We now come to historic times, and the remainder 



SOCIAL. 201 



is certain. Let us turn to Herodotus, where we read 
of expeditions by adventurers from Egypt to Ethiopia, 
one of them piercing even to the table of the sun, 
which men cursed daily by reason of his tormenting 
heat, and where shadows were cast to the south, a 
fact the relation of which cast entire discredit on the 
authenticity of all that the adventurers related ; how 
that military expeditions were attempted and made 
between Ethiopia and Egypt ; how that one Ethiopian 
king conquered Egypt, holding possession of the coun- 
try for only the time stated by the oracle, when he 
returned home, leaving the country again free. 

This history is mentioned to call attention to the 
fact of the estabhshment of communications between 
Egypt and Ethiopia, and especially to show that the 
Ethiopians, having once attained the headwaters of 
the^Nile, would naturally float down that river. 

The Ethiopians afterwards became the slaves of 
Egypt, and were used in the construction of the great 
temples, monuments and pyramids of that country. 
When this work was done, and the Egyptians had no 
more use for them ; and, fearing not only for their own 
domestic safety, but that, if war should ensue, these 
slaves might go over to the enemy, the Egyptians 
emancipated them, sending them into Asia, whence 
originated the Hebrews, whose naturally intractable 
dispositions rendered impossible the maintenance of 
themselves as a nation; and, being natural trades- 
men, they soon dispersed over the whole earth, al- 
though the city of Jerusalem long remained as the 
center of their affections, and still so remains, long after 
their national character has disappeared, and to which 
city their tradition points a return. 



202 MEXICO. 



We, therefore, see that the Hebrew is a descendant 
of the Ethiopian, from the table of the sun, where the 
shadow is cast to the south. 

With those who accept the Bibhcal account of the 
migrations of the Hebrews, then the Children of Israel, 
I have no controversy. As Max Miiller remarks, 
"With such antagonists, I am too old to fight!" 

The movements of the Aryan race are well known, 
and only require mention here to complete my view. 
Coming into history in Asia, perhaps near the Cau- 
casus Mountains, one branch going east, and spread- 
ing over most of the country south of the Himalayas, 
except the far east, which would seem to indicate that 
that country was then inhabited; and, I will assume, 
by the emigrants from America, heretofore mentioned ; 
the other, spreading over Asia Minor, thence to all 
Europe, later to America and to all the world. The 
Aryans are the only people whose identity and move- 
ments have been determined by a study of their lan- 
guage, and this alone has given us their early history. 

The study of language may sometime demonstrate 
the truth of the error of the other great movements I 
have mentioned; and I hope that our government 
will sometime find a little money which may be ap- 
propriated to the benefit of science and humanity, 
because the task is too great for individual enter- 
prise, as miUions of dollars, hundreds of men, and 
more than a lifetime would be required to complete 
the work. 

We have now presented the great race-movements 
of the world, from the beginnings to the present time; 
and we have but three. I am, therefore, forced to 
differ from generally-accepted authority, as my facts 



SOCIAL, 203 



fall short; and I am not willing to expand them to 
keep in Hne with great names. If I differ, that is my 
privilege. If I were great, I would have to conform to 
received opinion; but, being little, I may be allowed 
to have opinions of my own. 

Having thus outhned the great race-movements, I 
come now to the Mexicans, which term, in the largest 
sense, means all those domiciled or naturaUzed in the 
country, and forming the resident population, with the 
rights of citizens. This is the political meaning of the 
term. 

When considering citizens from the standpoint of 
race, we have frequently the white, the brown, the yel- 
low and the black ; and here we encounter a condition 
precluding, notwithstanding what may be the laws, 
the idea of equality, because nature has set material 
barriers which ideas cannot remove, and against which 
the work of art has proved equally ineffectual. 

In Mexico, we have the brown and the white races 
to consider, from the standpoint of color. I call the 
one race, the aboriginal, brown, knowing that I am 
not coming within the scientific designation of an- 
thropologists, but it is nearer brown, of many shades, 
than any other commonly understood color; and I 
have an intense dislike for descriptions or comparisons 
of color, which carry us to the Red Sea or the Arctic 
regions. Brown, I will, therefore, call the color of 
the aboriginal or native Mexicans; and, if this give 
offense, seeing that we are all so expert and sensitive 
on the question of colors, I will simply call it the brown 
of the Mexicans, which would allow me a wide departure 
from the fact. 



204 MEXICO. 



Coming now to the white race, I do, indeed, have a 
deUcate task to perform and a sensitive point to touch. 
Asking pardon of the fact, the white race of Mexico 
are the descendants in the country of the Spaniards, 
whose complexion is that of the people of all the Med- 
iterranean countries, none of whom can, in reality, 
be called white. 

The Caucasian, ordinarily called the white race, is 
far from having a monopoly of that color, and is cer- 
tainly more inaccurately designated white than the 
Mexicans brown, if any objections still remain on that 
score. 

Beginning with the ''Land of the Midnight Sun," 
in northern Europe, we find the Caucasians white- 
haired and whiteskinned ; in southern Asia, we find 
them blackhaired and blackskinned ; and in the Med- 
iterranean countries, or midway, we find them black- 
haired with a sallow skin, called olive, when it is clean. 
The cHmate of Mexico is a tanning and not a bleaching 
one, so that the descendants of the Spaniards have not 
improved in color there. 

In the character of citizens of a country we naturally 
expect equality, but this general principle is always 
profoundly modified where difference of race exists, 
and is in proportion to the difference. 

All efforts for two or more distinct races to hve to- 
gether in the same country, governed by the same law, 
have only furnished so many examples of failure, 
ranging through all its degrees; and, not only this, 
but peoples of different races, living in proximity, 
even though as distinct and well organized nations, 
have never been able to exist in peace. As we are all 
so famihar with history, I need spend no time on ex- 



SOCIAL. 205 



amples, but, at the same time, I will refer, for the sake 
of making my statement complete, to the tribal and 
race movements of medieval Europe. 

In Mexico, the brown and the white races, the de- 
scendants of the aborigines and the descendants of the 
Spaniards, make up the population, with a sprinkUng 
of all nationaUties, which is the condition to be found 
in all countries of any note or advancement, and, par- 
ticularly, trade. In this sprinkling, Americans pre- 
dominate, none of whom, so far as I could learn, have 
become naturalized, but all claiming citizenship in the 
United States, whether residing there five, ten or twenty 
years. 

The population of Mexico is said to be about thirteen 
millions, but I am inclined not to accept this estimate, 
as I think it too high ; although, whether this is ten or 
thirty percent too high is not much to the purpose. 

I have no information at all, except my own observa- 
tions, as to the proportion of Spanish-Mexicans and of 
native Mexicans, so I must make my best guess, 
which I will put between two and five percent for the 
former, nearer two than five, the remainder, of course, 
natives. This conclusion has cost me much observa- 
tion, and calculation ; but to show how untrustworthy 
most estimates of this kind are, I will mention that I 
asked a man, resident in the country more than a 
dozen years, whose business, during most of that time, 
has required him to travel over the entire country, 
what was the proportion of the two races, and he an- 
swered about twenty-five percent of the people were 
descendants of the Spaniards; but, on talking the 
matter over with him, he admitted it to be about five 
percent. The truth is, that he had never given a 



206 MEXICO. 



thought to the question, and answered me wildly and 
offhand. 

What an illustration of the fact that we know least 
about the most famiHar things! Children, and some- 
times grown people, are unable to give a description 
of their parents. 

I will, however, not to incur too strong objections, 
adopt the proportions of five and ninety-five as ex- 
pressing the numerical relations of these two races. 

Beginning as a handful of adventurers, invading the 
country in 1521, afterwards turning murderers, as is 
usual in such cases, when occasion arises, the Spanish 
population has increased, if the estimate of thirteen 
millions as the entire population and my proportion of 
five percent are to be taken, to about six hundred and 
fifty thousand, or about as many people as live in St. 
Louis. 

If these figures were reduced two-thirds, I would 
feel much better satisfied with them, and I would not 
be surprised to learn that the actual number of persons 
of unmixed Spanish blood in Mexico is less than one 
hundred thousand. 

The question arises. How did this handful of Spanish 
obtain, and how so long hold, dominion of the coun- 
try? The answer is, Go read the history of the Con- 
quest; but the answer as to existing conditions is not 
so easily referred ; and I must, therefore, give my own 
views of the situation, which, I think, is explained fully 
by reason of the fact that the Spaniards took from the 
Mexicans the land, and have since been holding pos- 
session; and, as land is the true and only basis of 
wealth, ^nd the foundation and maintenance of aris- 
tocracy, a complete explanation is now given. 



SOCIAL. 207 



The people who own the land rule the country, of 
which truth all history is but a single example. In 
Mexico, these great tracts called haciendas are fre- 
quently in the possession and under the control of a 
single individual, usually the eldest son, who has pur- 
chased the interests of the other heirs, so that primo- 
geniture is almost as much the fact in Mexico as the 
rule in England. 

The decimating, relentless and cruel wars so long 
waged by the Spaniards against the natives, and the 
slavery to which the natives were reduced, and the 
privations under which those not reduced, have suf- 
fered, have doubtless greatly reduced the number of 
the natives, and I will assume that this reduction was 
in an inverse ratio to the increase of the Spaniards. 
If I had an immense fortune at my command, and 
the prospect of a life of leisure, I would devote both to 
the study and development of Anthropology in the 
New World ; if I had only a few years to give to the 
subject, I would devote it to that part of the New 
World lying between and including Mexico and Peru; 
if I had but a few months, I would give them to Mex- 
ico; if I had but a few days, I would give them to 
reading Prescott ; and, if but a few hours, I would sit 
down and think. 

Between these periods of a lifetime and a few hours, 
we can all find a little leisure in which to view this 
great subject of Man in the New World, and collect 
facts for future reflection. 

That ''truth is more strange than fiction'' finds a 
complete exemplification in the study of the ancient 
civilizations of Mexico and Peru and the countries 
lying between them. The facts are so many, so great. 



208 MEXICO. 



so wonderful, so interesting, so instructive, and the 
truths to be deduced so forcible and easily drawn, and 
of such universal application, that I must doubt the 
inteUigence of Americans who know nothing about 
them; and I want to be so candid with my reader as 
to tell him here and now, that, if he is entirely ignorant 
on this subject, he is not invited to read my book, 
which is written with almost all the history of Mexico 
assumed. Men who know nothing are the freest in 
their opinions, because they do not possess even a 
well-defined ignorance to serve as a background for 
their sayings. 

The Spaniards, under Cortez, arrived in Mexico in 
1519, and took possession of the country, which Spain 
held until 1821, or practically three hundred years, 
when Mexico achieved its independence. 

Why Spain lost dominion in the New World so com- 
pletely and so quickly, when she seemed to be so pow- 
erful, has long been a wonderment rather than a ques- 
tion ; and, as I have never found, in my reading, any 
explanation other than those based on sentiment, 
which, I think, rather misleading than explanatory, I 
will state the cause, as I have concluded. 

Following the discovery of America, Spain made an 
alliance with Austria, which gave her a prominent and 
potent position in European diplomacy, and raised her 
to a first power ; she, also, during that time, had the good 
fortune to be governed by wise counsels and a pro- 
gressive monarchy ; but France, lying between Austria 
and Spain, and of antagonistic interest to both, through 
the good fortune of circumstances and the efforts of 
Cardinal Richelieu, perpetuated by Louis XIV, the 



SOCIAL. 209 



Austro-Spanish alliance was broken, and Spain ren- 
dered impotent through the control, by France, of her 
kingship. 

What happened to Spain in the New World was en- 
tirely due to the diplomacy of France for her own 
safety and her own aggrandizement. Those who still 
want to think of the event in a poetic strain, may ex- 
press themselves sentimentally, yet truthfully, by 
saying that France was the hand of Fate that expelled 
Spain from the New World. 

And those, also, who are looking for an ultimate 
fatality, or who indulge a passionate fondness for re- 
tributive justice in all things, may find an object for 
their sentiments in the wrecking, by a storm, on the 
very island where Columbus first landed, of the last 
vessel captured by our navy from Spain in the events 
of 1898, breaking the cables which bound it in tow, 
and driving against this fatal island, that the last act, 
as all others, might end itself, a wreck on the very 
spot where the Spaniard first laid violent and conquer- 
ing hands upon the people of the New World, thus end- 
ing the tragedy in that poetic justice, without which, 
no human event or divine conception seems complete. 

From 1821 to 1861, the history of Mexico is written 
in wars, revolutions, rebellions, in emeries, constant and 
continuous; in despotisms, empires, republics, often 
coexistent, and, sometimes, in duplicate. This vau- 
deville of anarchy was started to a close in 1861, when 
the government, de facto, repudiated its foreign debt, 
which precipitated foreign intervention on the part of 
France, Spain and England, resulting in the reign of 
the Emperor Maximilian from 1864 to 1867, a short 



210 MEXICO. 



period of about three years, a foreign prince under the 
military protection mainly of France, and against the 
consent of the people of Mexico, whose reign and 
life both ended at the hands of the Mexicans in, per- 
haps, the first just revolution in which they had ever 
been engaged since achieving their independence in 
1821. 

During the reign of Maximilian, Juarez, all the while, 
claimed the presidency, and he it was who, marching 
from the north, cooperating with General, now Pres- 
ident, Diaz on the south, overthrew the empire. 

On the execution of Maximilian, Juarez took active 
control of the government, and, in 1871, was elected 
president for the third time, having for opponents 
Lerdo de Tejada and Porfirio Diaz, the present in- 
cumbent. Diaz then headed a rebellion, the extent 
and outcome of which I do not know, in the midst of 
which President Juarez died, and Lerdo de Tejada, 
then President of the Supreme Court, succeeded to the 
office of President of the Republic, which office he held 
until 1876, when Diaz headed another rebellion, which 
ended as a revolution, expelling Lerdo de Tejada 
from the country. Diaz lost no time in entering the 
City of Mexico, and had himself proclaimed President 
the same year; and, the next year, he became con- 
stitutional President, which office he held until the 
end of 1880, giving way to Manuel Gonzales, who had 
been elected to succeed him, who, in his turn, was 
succeeded by Diaz in 1884, who has held the office 
continually up to the present time, 1907. 

With great difficulty do I restrain myself from en- 
tering upon a review of the civilization of the ancient 



SOCIAL. 211 



Mexicans and their kindred races in America ; but this 
is beyond my purpose, and the subject is, also, too 
extended, although, alas! too little known, yet at our 
door. All I can do is, to briefly call attention to their 
arts, particularly the arts of sculpture, painting, and 
writing, the perpetuation of ideas, which is the great- 
est art among mankind, greater than the production 
of ideas, having risen to the dignity of history; their 
sculpture, mythological, religious, statuary and scien- 
tific, preserved to us in stone, which the fire and wrath 
of the Spaniards could not consume, although they 
hid much of it by burying it in the ground ; their tools 
and implements of manufacture, proving the existence 
of trades, callings and industries; their regular forms 
of government embracing the most enlightened in- 
stitutions of legislative, judicial, executive ; their 
well-organized, disciplined and efficient armies; and, 
above all, their social system, giving full protection to 
every member of the community. 

These ancient people did not go to the foohsh ex- 
tent of trying to make all men equal, which is no more 
possible than to make all numbers from one to a hun- 
dred equal. 

We have not yet learned that all men are not born 
equal ; and hence our failure in trying to govern by 
the operation of a wrong principle ; we have not learned 
that many ancient and solemn documents were ex- 
pedients of the moment, thrown off in great haste to 
meet exigencies, and that others were the product of 
deliberate falsehood, of deception, of error, of interest, 
of greed, of egotism; yet we cling to the ancient, 
because we know not the modern, believing that time 



212 MEXICO. 



sanctifies, when we should know full well that it does 
nothing but destroy. 

Here, again, we have much to learn from the gov- 
ernment of the ancient Mexicans ; that a good govern- 
ment consists, above all things, in keeping the people 
usefully and industriously employed, reaping the ben- 
efits of their own labor, allowing none to be idle, and 
none to monopolize. This first point is so great, that, 
if it does not embrace all others, at least makes them 
easy of attainment. 

With us, while we may labor, others reap the ulti- 
mate harvest; while we may vote, others govern; 
while we may hope, others realize; and we are thus 
only the instrument and means of the few. 

If a low scale of civilization of the ancient Mexicans 
be inferred from the severity of their laws, as is often 
objected, I want to ask in what stage of civilization 
were the people, who, leaving their own country to 
obtain religious liberty, enacted, in their exile, that 
"Whoever shall worship any other god than the Lord 
shall surely be put to death," and also providing the 
death penalty for blasphemy, sorcery, adultery, rape, 
and an outrage offered by a son to his parents, the 
nature of which is not stated, without making mention 
of robbery, arson, treason, manslaughter, murder? 
The death penalty was also to be inflicted for the very 
"setting foot in the colony" by adherents of a certain 
religion; and the attendance on divine worship of 
the established faith was made compulsory, with severe 
penalties for dereliction. All in the name of freedom 
of conscience, remember! 

Not only in affairs of conscience, but in those of 



SOCIAL. 213 



taste and fashion also, the individual found his dis- 
position and inclination subjected to the same ideas 
of liberty. 

Transcendentalism could issue only from such parent- 
age. 

I had the great good fortune of seeing some of the 
descendants of our pilgrim fathers themselves making 
a pilgrimage in Mexico, and I will relate somewhat 
about it. 

While I was in the museum in the City of Mexico ) 
one day, a noisy party of about thirty Americans passed 
through; there were the girls, eating sweets, chewing 
gum, laughing loudly, and talking shriekingly; the 
mothers following, with their heads close together, 
conversing in a low tone, indicative of the spread of 
intelHgence ; and the men in business suits, with cane, 
and in cloth, with spectacles, closed the procession; 
for procession, indeed, it was, because on the contin- 
uous move, the subject of observation by others, but 
themselves seeing nothing. In the presence of the 
most monumental facts in human history, they were 
entirely impassive; if they had any brains, they had 
not been cultivated for use; their health seemed per- 
fect ; and, if they were travehng for pleasure, they were 
incurring a useless expenditure; because they could 
have vegetated in their stalls at home. They stopped j 
before nothing ; they saw nothing. 

You want to know where these people were from? 
Well, then, I will tell you, because I had the same cu- 
riosity to know ; and, as they were staying at the same 
hotel I was, I examined the register to learn that they 
were from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. 



214 MEXICO. 



Before you smile too broadly, please reflect what the 
people from your own great State would have done 
under Hke circumstances; and, to bring it home still 
closer, what interest you yourself might have taken. 

I am not flattered with the general intelligence of 
Americans at home; and, just like all other people, 
they seem to have less sense when they go abroad. 

Many of the native Mexicans visit this museum; 
and I remarked with what pecuHar interest they stood 
before these monuments of their ancestral race, which 
seemed to import a kind of veneration, which I would 
not deny them. 

A father and a mother, with their son of ten and 
daughter of eight, preceded me, walking very slowly, 
and stopping long to converse before certain objects 
which seemed to them of special interest. The man 
was shod with sandals; the wife and children bare- 
foot. Their surplus clothing was a wornout blanket 
folded and lying across the shoulder of the father. 
They were almost naked, but their clothing, if clothing 
it could be called, was clean. I had before observed 
an image in stone of a toad, with opened mouth, and 
a human head as if emerging from its throat, from 
which I had only gotten the idea of topsyturvy, a 
man in your throat. Before this, a stop was made, 
and the woman, pressing her elbows closely against 
her sides, which had the effect of sHghtly elevating the 
shoulders, and, with her hands opened wide, extending 
downward and forward, said " Nativ — .'' This woman 
understood the mythological representation; and her 
attitude and gestures, and the pronunciation of but 
a portion of one word, explained it all to me on the 
instant. Here was a mythological representation of 



SOCIAL. 215 



the origin of the human race, the toad coming from 
the earth, and man issuing from the mouth of the toad. 
The interpretation coming to me as it had, overwhelmed 
me with a crushing force; but curiosity soon roused 
me to inquiry. Who are and what are these people? 
Where did they come from? Where do they Hve? 
What is their mission here? How could I make their 
acquaintance? How could I have them to instruct 
me? Do they understand all these mysteries? Are 
they keeping up the traditions ? Are they instructing 
their children in them? My perplexities are giving 
way to musings ; the closing hour is struck ; this fam- 
ily leave the building, while I stand motionless, as 
if entranced, until a guard touches my arm, calhng 
my attention to the exit, through which I hurry; but 
this family has disappeared. I turn to walk slowly 
to my hotel, feehng, at the same time, a profound ad- 
miration and a deep sorrow for these poor and unfor- 
tunate, oppressed and noble people, and a sense of 
shame for my own dense ignorance. 

These people were of excellent stature, dignified 
mien, and striking intelligence; and who knows but 
that they were the family upon whom should now 
justly rest the royal purple and the kingly crown; 
or, perhaps, descendants of the priesthood, keeping 
alive the traditions of their rehgion, with a hope, in 
either case, for a return of Justice, by resurrection or 
incarnation, to the world to which she has been dead 
so many years? 

For those not in a position to know, I should ex- 
plain the word ''Nativ — ," else my statement cannot 
be understood by them. The entire word is " Nativi- 
dad," nativity, birth, origin. The native Mexicans 



216 MEXICO. 



are in the habit of pronouncing only about half of 
long words, as was done here. 

The government buildings, prisons, churches, schools, 
theaters, plazas, and the numerous places where legend 
has entwined a thread of fancy, or crime erected an 
altar of horrors. I pass rapidly over, and will continue 
respecting the national museum, almost entirely of an 
anthropological significance, and, I imagine, contain- 
ing the most valuable collection in the world. A 
description in detail of the things to be seen here would 
require a large volume; and I will, therefore, mention 
only a few of the most important features. 

Galleries of paintings, historic and traditional, re- 
hgious and mythological; many photographs repre- 
senting the ancient life of the country, its ruins of 
cities, palaces and temples, grand even in decay; 
remains of the arts and industries of these ancient 
peoples; their instruments of death, producing the 
mournful reflection that in no age of the world did not 
men murder one another ; historic rehcs since the Con- 
quest; but, above all, what is left of the ancient civ- 
ihzation, industrial, scientific, rehgious. 
' The condition of every boasted civiHzation seems to 
be that it is less excellent than those more humble 
and less pretentious; and this is particularly true as 
respects Spain and Mexico at the time of the Conquest. 
Then, Spain could only murder and destroy ; but Mex- 
ico was conserving and advancing. Mexico's industrial 
and social life had then become a system, while Spain 
was in the full heat of consuming madness, with which, 
also, all Europe was, at that time, infected, as with a 
long-standing malady, due to a lack of stable govern- 



SOCIAL. 217 



ments, and the unlimited indulgence of all the evil pro- 
pensities of human nature, excited and sustained by 
corrupt priests and a bad religion, under the banner of 
Conscience, and in the sacred names of Truth and 
Justice; and, what is still more awful, to sustain the 
cause of an omnipotent God. 

In scientific advancement, Mexico doubtless led the 
world, at least in the ascertainment of the causes of 
eclipses; and, having arrived at this fact, the true 
relations of the solar system must have been known 
to them also. 

This fact is preserved to us in stone, which saved it 
from the general conflagration to which the Spaniards 
consigned everything that would burn. 

This is sufficient for me, and I hasten on, not even 
stopping before the great calendar stone, as I do not 
desire to convince those who would require more. 

At the base of the hill of Chapultepec, I saw hiero- 
glyphics cut upon the rocks, some of which had been 
blasted away as if to destroy or carry them off; but 
the dislodged fragments were lying near the place. I 
made diligent inquiry about this, but could obtain no 
information, which seemed equally as strange as the 
existence of the fact ; and I reflected how that the like- 
ness of Montezuma, cut on the solid rock of a moun- 
tain, had been destroyed by order of the Mexican gov- 
ernment, long years after all passion should have dis- 
appeared even from the most savage minds. 

Language and literature, like the arts and the 
sciences, bear the closest relation to the social condition 
of a people ; and this is my reason for giving those sub- 
jects here. 



218 MEXICO. 



Some reason, aside from the strictly historic or 
scientific, which can be of interest or benefit to but 
few, should exist; and, I will say, some practical rea- 
son should exist, since the purely educational is now 
a failure, for the learning of a language, even a living 
language, saying nothing of a dead one; but respect 
for great names precludes me from saying anything 
about the educational advantages formerly existing 
in the study of dead languages. 

When railway communication between the United 
States and the City of Mexico was established, some 
years ago, considerable interest was manifest for a 
time as to the future of the trade relations between 
these two countries, of which the study of the Spanish 
language was only one phase. 

Being then somewhat younger and more ambitious 
than now, and without capital; and, like all young 
and inexperienced sailors, mistaking every gust for a 
storm, I was seriously considering the advisability of 
learning the Spanish language for the purpose of leav- 
ing port on the first vessel; but, before the time for 
sailing, a dead calm set in, of such long duration, that 
the only thing I shipped was the enterprise. 

My idea, thus set adrift, flotsam, jetsam, ligan, I 
know not where, until I found it again on my visit 
to Mexico, presenting some degree of brightness ; and 
I set about at once, in the face of necessity, without 
consideration, to learn Spanish. 

1 first bought a small dictionary and some still 
smaller books of ready-made Spanish from the news- 
boy on the train en route; and, as these had the Eng- 
lish equivalent placed opposite the Spanish in every 
instance, I, of course, experienced no difficulty. 



SOCIAL. 219 



Knowing more about the Bible than my accusers 
will admit, I bought a copy of that in Spanish as soon 
as I could, so that I would not be troubled in decipher- 
ing the meaning or the translation, although these 
things have sometimes bothered divines; and, to my 
great surprise, I could read and understand it fairly 
well; but my greatest surprise came, when, on buy- 
ing a newspaper, I found I could read and compre- 
hend, particularly the press dispatches, about as well 
as if they had been printed in English. 

I also secured a copy of Don Quixote in Spanish, 
but I stumbled over this, and fell very hard, although 
quite familiar with the work in its English dress. 

I was elated, nevertheless, but another surprise of 
a less pleasant kind awaited me ; and I was chagrined 
even, when hearing conversation, that I could under- 
stand no part of it; but recovering from this, upon 
training my ear to the sound, as my eye had been, 
almost without effort or previous preparation, to the 
form, I was able, before long, to get the run of an 
ordinary conversation. 

But I could not talk. "See" and "wano" did not 
sound much as "si" and "bueno" looked; but I gave 
myself diligently to the task, and learned to speak a 
little Spanish before leaving the country. 

This statement, however, is somewhat misleading; 
and, perhaps I should explain, that the Spanish spoken 
in Mexico bears about the same relation to the Spanish 
proper as Pennsylvania Dutch does to Old High Ger- 
man, so that a Spaniard at first finds much difficulty 
in understanding ; and, had I learned the real Spanish 
at the time I first considered the idea, and gone lisp- 



220 MEXICO. 



ing into Mexico, I would have encountered about the 
same difficulty. 

I know some Greek, Latin, French, and German, 
and a little English, and this was the reason for my 
knowing some Spanish in advance, so to speak, as 
these languages have all a common origin and many 
similarities; but Spanish, I think, is the poorest of 
all the Aryan languages, if I may be permitted to ex- 
press a judgment from history and results, as I cer- 
tainly cannot from a philological standpoint. It is poor 
in its forms of expression, and still poorer in the num- 
ber of its words, many of which must do duty, like 
the servants of the pretentious rich, from the stables 
to the drawing-room; and, while they may change 
their livery, yet cannot rid themselves of unpleasant 
odors, and sometimes of uncouth or obscene associ- 
ations. To those who know Spanish, I do not need, 
and to those who do not, I cannot, explain. 

The Spanish has kept pace with the times by addi- 
tions taken bodily from the French, much as the Anglo- 
Saxon became a cultured language by also taking from, 
or, more properly, mixing with, the French, so that 
the English of today is French in substance but Anglo- 
Saxon in form. The same is happening to the Spanish, 
and the constant and many additions will soon, if not 
even now, become so numerous as to change the blend 
to a color. The Spanish have taken the sensible course 
by adopting the French words without any change; 
but the English, by reason of a national pride and a 
universal hatred for the French, have had to change 
at least one letter from the original form of the French 
before adopting it, and turning it loose with this ear- 
mark to browse in the woods of English literature. 



SOCIAL. 221 



I imagine that the Anglo-Saxon and the Spanish, 
before either began to take from the French, would 
bear comparison as to condition. The French lan- 
guage is the great storehouse from which almost all 
the other European languages have been, for a long 
time, taking, but not without an unjustifiable and 
unreasonable grumble, perhaps to make pretentious 
the preying of their indigency upon generosity. 

In its origin, the Spanish owes much to the Latin, 
but I imagine not so much as is usually claimed. We 
know, in the early stage of a language, and partic- 
ularly before it is written, or only to a small extent, 
that the influence of foreign nations, tribes or hordes, 
to use the word expressive of the movement of peoples 
in early and medieval Europe, is very great in modi- 
fying or entirely changing the language of a country; 
and I believe that, in view of the many nations, tribes, 
hordes, inhabiting what is now the territory of Spain, 
they must have left many lasting impressions not only 
upon the language, but the people as well, now in- 
habiting that country; and I further believe that 
whatever influence the Latin has exercised in that 
country has been indirect by way of France. 

Of those competent to judge, I ask for a consider- 
ation of the influence of the Greek at Rome as com- 
pared with the Latin in Castile. 

If we must concede that the Spanish is a descend- 
ant of the Latin, we must likewise concede that it is 
sporadic. 

The pleasant, flowing music of the Spanish is its 
only redeeming feature, but its scale is contracted, 
and one soon tires. 

The future of Spanish in Spain is toward the French 



222 MEXICO. 



until extinction is reached; and, in Mexico, as well 
as in all the western continent, it must give way to 
the English. Beyond this, the prophets are dumb, 
and the oracles give it over to Fate. The present 
drift of all the European languages is toward the 
French; but what is more capricious and uncertain 
than drift? 

Following language, is its record evidence, litera- 
ture. What I do not know about Spanish literature 
would make many English books; but I can, at least, 
boast that I saw the covers, and was edified by the 
titles of the volumes containing it. In the public 
library in the City of Mexico, I saw a large collection 
of books of the sizes, and, in appearance, showing 
about the ordinary wear and tear, of books to be seen 
in the city libraries in the United States. I next 
mention the private library of a lawyer, of miscel- 
laneous books, about 3000 in number, at one of the 
state capitals, all new, magnificently bound and let- 
tered, and a real picture in appearance. Books are 
my hobby, and I felt envious, when I thought of my 
small, ragged, battered and tattered collection. Lastly, 
I saw the collection in the national palace or museum, 
filling a room about 60x30, magnificent volumes these, 
such as are not now printed. One volume in the 
museum proper was spread out, and it measured six 
feet from tip to tip, about half that in the other di- 
mension, and it was nearly a foot thick. I do not 
know whether to say Monstrous ! with an exclamation, 
or Monstrosity, with a period; but, perhaps, I had 
better use both, and call it a monstrous monstrosity. 
How much more might not Confucius have expressed 



SOCIAL. 223 



by a few flourishes of his quill than all this book con- 
tained ! 

I saw a few hundred old and second-hand books for 
sale at the Thieves' Market; and, otherwise, I saw 
nothing to be called a library or collection of books in 
Mexico ; but a few rehgious books are to be found in 
most houses. I had often heard of bookworms; but 
I had never seen the real, or anything I ever took for 
the metaphorical, species. My curiosity was gratified 
at the Thieves' Market, and I purchased a book, rid- 
dled with holes, hke a piece of wood gone to dry-rot, 
the painstaking work of the reality. 

The contents of these books is what I mostly do not 
know. I have read both Prescott and Irving, each of 
whom says many things, in particular, about the con- 
tents of Spanish books, incidental to the handhng of 
the matters they had in mind ; about Spanish authors ; 
and, sometimes, in general, about Spanish literature. 
I have also carefully examined a history of Spanish 
literature by Tichnor; but, aside from Don Quixote, 
I never read any Spanish work; and this is the only 
Spanish work I ever saw translated into English. I 
see, from an examination of the books themselves, 
that most of them are printed in Paris. 

I do know, however, from general reading, that 
Spanish literature, both as to quantity and quality, is 
far below the general average for the European coun- 
tries. 

As to Mexican literature, I cannot say that such a 
thing exists, as neither in the bookstores nor on the 
trains did I see any productions of Mexicans. 

This statement is made from the evidence of what I 



224 MEXICO. 



did not see, as I did not examine a catalogue of the 
publications of the country, if such a thing is in ex- 
istence. 

The trash, now met with everywhere, was mainly 
translations from the French; but one of Spanish 
authorship, which I will rename '^The Bull and the 
Maiden," particularly attracted my attention. These 
two animals seem, as much now as ever before, to hold 
the center in Spanish romance. 

These books, as with us, are well bound in showy 
covers, conspicuously lettered; and, until recently, 
have been selling from $1.50 to $2.50, from which a 
lady, on account of the great variety of bindings, 
could always find one to harmonize with her complex- 
ion, or dress; but automobiles are now the only fad, 
so that the price has slumped to the general level of 
50 cents. 

I distinctly remember, when I used to read, in the 
haymow at home, this same class of literature, but of 
a much better quality, bound in yellow paper, price 
ten cents; it was then universally called ''yellowback 
literature," which name long since disappeared with 
the thing, and I had forgotten that yellow had ever 
been used to designate any kind of literature until 
''yellow journalism" has become so popular. 

Why I used the haymow as a reading-room I do not 
propose to tell, but it is well known to all contemporary 
boys of that age. The world has progressed so since 
then, and the haymow is now in the house. What we 
then thought hardly good enough for the haymow is 
now standard for the library. Such is the elevation 
of authorship. Let no one here mourn his fate. 



SOCIAL. 225 



The Mexicans possess great ingenuity and mechan- 
ical skill, as shown by the practice of those small arts 
and industries which their poverty will permit. 

Drawn-work, of geometrical designs, and needle- 
work, I mention first, because so well known in the 
United States from the importations into this coun- 
try. 

At Aguas Calientes, the headquarters for this work, 
I bought, for $4, a spread, which, at our rate of wages 
in the United States, could not be made for $50, and 
yet I had the effrontery to jew down a dollar the poor 
woman who sold it to me, as she wanted $5; but, 
such is the instinct of trade ; if offered gold dollars for 
thirty cents, we would bid only twenty-five. 

I need only mention the artistic weave of the costly 
Navajo blanket, as an illustration of what these people 
can do in that line, as this art doubtless originated in 
Mexico. 

The sombrero I also consider a great work of art, 
as it is a great vanity among them. 

Their paintings are not along the platitudes of Italy, 
nor the disproportions of the grand old masters, nor 
yet the overwrought productions of our own times, 
but are art, genuine art, that art expressive, not sup- 
pressive, of idea ; that pleasing propriety in the adap- 
tation of form and color, awakening a train of recollec- 
tions, which is the only art, — all, however, on a small 
scale, painted on a spoon, a bit of cloth, a chip of wood. 

I have both a contempt and a pity for those people 
who can see art only in immensity, extravagance, and 
cost. As I have been going through the world, I have 
made some collections of works of art myself; arid I 
have spent as much as ten cents for some, which I 



226 MEXICO. 



would not trade, if art be the standard, for some others 
I have seen, said to have cost over $100,000. Who 
has not experienced, in the scrawUngs of a child, the 
awakening of a greater and more pleasant train of 
thought than on the easel of the artist? 

Mexican sculpture, if its humble condition would 
permit the name, and image-making, are almost ex- 
clusively confined to statuettes, which are as distinc- 
tive and expressive as their paintings. 

Writing, painting, sculpture, music, are the only 
means of recording thought; and, if no thought is 
expressed in the record, or, what is the same thing, 
none can be extracted from it, of what use is the record, 
no matter how costly? 

1 do not know what the laws in Mexico are respecting 
education; and, for the purpose of this article, I am 
glad I do not, as I am going to speak only of results, 
or, more properly, what I observed. 

In extenuation or apology for this method of pur- 
suing my subject, I will merely ask the question, How 
many people in the United States, even among those 
who ought to know, actually do know the laws of their 
own State on educational matters? 

And, further, if I wrote from a standpoint of the laws, 
I am afraid I might be far wide of the results, or what 
is to be seen as the effect of those laws. 

If one were to write the history of Greece, having 
before him the laws and philosophic writings of Solon 
and Lycurgus, looking for the results of their operation, 
expecting to find their exemplification in the acts of 
the people, he would soon find that he had begun at 
the wrong end of his story, and that he should have 



SOCIAL. 227 



begun with Greece, and have written in Solon and 
Lycurgus at their own proper places. 

If one were also to refer to conditions at home, and 
especially to those closely connected with morals and 
the social state, reUgion, the dispensation of intoxicants 
and the injurious drugs, and the nuisances generally, 
not even a philosopher, though acute as Volney or 
Guizot, could recognize, from our laws, our system as 
practiced. 

That bulwark of education and liberty, a country 
school, I nowhere saw, and I believe it does not exist ; 
the villages and smaller towns are also without ed- 
ucation facilities; but, when a population of about 
5000 is reached, a primary school is usually foimdin 
a building connected with the principal church build- 
ing of the place. I say principal church building, be- 
cause, in towns or cities of this size, not less than three 
churches, in most instances, are found, seldom two, 
and very rarely one; and any one of these church 
buildings is ordinarily worth more, or rather represents 
a greater expenditure of money, than all the other 
property of the place, excepting the remaining church 
property. 

In these schools, the sexes are separated, the boys 
and the girls occupying separate rooms, which I much 
approve, wherever practicable, as a general plan; be- 
cause I believe in raising boys boys and girls girls, and 
not trying to either level or extinguish what nature 
has so sharply distinguished. In country schools and 
in those of small towns, the separation of the sexes 
is impracticable, but I see no reason for not doing 
so in the larger towns and cities, where the course of 
education is more extended, and the time of associ- 



228 MEXICO. 



ation of the two sexes longer; and, in this, I am sure 
that no one who has dihgently watched the progress 
of pupils, in the graded schools to the graduation in 
the high-schools, can consistently differ in opinion; 
but, for the benefit of those who do differ from me in 
opinion on this subject, and they are very numerous, 
I will cite two instances, within my own personal 
knowledge, of the graduating class from high-schools : 
in one, a class of forty, five- girls, during the closing 
year, became enciente by boys of the same class ; and, 
in the other, three out of a class of eighteen. While 
this proportion does not exist in every case, and cer- 
tainly we all know of many instances where nothing 
of the kind has happened, yet we all know of instances 
where it has happened; and we of mature experience 
also mournfully know that the proportion of 5 to 40 
and 3 to 18 does not, in all probability, represent the 
correct proportion of actual derelictions. 

If my position on this question is correct, then we 
can easily see that Mexico, in one particular at least, 
is ahead of the United States in educational matters. 

The pupils of these schools are all mere children, 
from which I infer that the school age is very limited. 

I sauntered up close to some of these schoolrooms 
to find out what was going on, and they were all study- 
ing out loud, which very forcibly reminded me of 
what our fathers and grandfathers have told us about 
the happenings in the old log schoolhouses of colonial 
and post-colonial days; and I imagine that these 
Mexican schools are about on a par with those, both 
as to methods and extent of education. 

I think we would enjoy a very great treat, if, in our 
own schools, we would set aside a day, preferably at the 



SOCIAL. 229 



end of the term, when study and recitation might pro- 
ceed by the old regime, and under the direction of one 
of the oldest citizens. We would thus, not only be 
repeating history, but animating patriotism as well, 
that virtue which has now but little life among us, or 
is measured solely by money or interest. 

At Valparaiso, I saw a school for girls, which, judging 
from the size and apparent age of the pupils, I assumed 
corresponded to our high-school age in the United 
States, but I know nothing of the course of study; at 
Zacatecas, I saw a college for females, the students 
being woman-grown, and perhaps all over twenty 
years of age, the course of study unknown also; and 
at Aguas Calientes, I saw a school of arts and sciences 
of the pretensions of our colleges and universities in 
the United States. Judging from external appear- 
ances, I think I am justified in giving these three insti- 
tutions as representatives of their class. 

What I have heretofore said applies to the country 
outside the City of Mexico itself, which is metropolitan, 
and bears, I imagine, about the same relation to the 
country at large as did Thebes, and at a later date, 
Alexandria to Egypt, Babylon to Asia Minor, Athens 
to Greece, Rome to Italy, which relation can be best 
appreciated, when we remember that the names of 
those cities stood, not only for the country, but for 
the government also. 

I will not undertake the task even to give a catalogue 
of the educational institutions in the city, which would 
be as barren of interest as it would be unprofitable, 
and I am writing neither a guidebook nor an itinerary. 
All that is conveyed in the expression metropolitan 
city needs a single, but a very important, modification, 



230 MEXICO. 



that no general educational system for the children 
is in operation, which leaves the people at large in the 
same deplorable state of ignorance as everywhere else 
prevalent in the country. If any laws for general ed- 
ucation exist in the city, the effects of their operation 
certainly are not to be seen or their influence felt. 

I observed a certain parade not now to be seen in the 
United States, which I will illustrate by saying that 
in one of the larger cities, at Guadalajara, in fact, I 
saw, walking up and down one of the plazas, a college 
young man, deeply buried in an old Greek text, which 
he held quite conspicuously. As he had no grammar 
nor dictionary nor "pony," and, as he turned the 
leaves with no degree of regularity, I felt sure it was 
all for show, and that he did not know whether he 
was anabasis or katabasis; and I also thought how 
many things not Greek did he not know! 

The parade of learning by students once existed in 
the United States, but that has now passed away, and 
not even books are required as a sign of their occu- 
pation, unless they be books on sports and athletics; 
and students would feel themselves as much ashamed 
or humiliated to find themselves encumbered with a 
load of books as you woiild to be caught carrying 
home from the butcher's, unwrapped, a sheep's head 
or some pigs' feet. If the Dunciad is not now to carry 
our books, certainly there is no other ass to do it. 

Only a small proportion, perhaps one or two per- 
cent, of the people of Mexico can read and write, and 
these attainments constitute almost their sole stock 
of learning; but, lack of education, as most of us 
have observed, brightens the mind, by giving an un- 
due prominence to those faculties which grow by their 



SOCIAL. 231 



exercise independently of a systematic education ; and 
we, at least I, have often met men, altogether unlet- 
tered, whose minds I would like to take in exchange 
for my own, if that were possible. 
V Education is, therefore, seen to have its losses. 

Having given a world-view and a race-view, I now 
come to those things constituting the everyday social 
life of the people in their immediate relation to one 
another; and I will begin with Crime. 

I cannot believe that crime among the native Mexi- 
cans is at all as prevalent as claimed by the Spanish- 
Mexicans ; and I will give an example : At Puruan- 
diro, a city said to contain 7782 people, I examined 
the list of arrests and prosecutions for one month, in 
what would correspond to our police courts in the 
United States; and found the number to be 179, a 
great many of which were for "Failure of respect, ^^ a 
crime against public decency, the remainder covering 
the ordinary petty crimes common to all cities. The 
highest fine imposed was $10, and the lowest 61 cents. 
Nearly all these convictions were for what we would 
call misdemeanors. This did not look very criminal 
to me; but I recognize full w^ell the danger of draw- 
ing conclusions from statistics, as nothing seems to 
be. more uncertain than moral conditions assumed 
from figures. 

Petty thieving is notorious, but the propensity seems 
to stop short of robbery, or horse-stealing, or bank- 
breaking. Drunkenness is very prevalent in the towns 
and cities, but I regard that as rather a moral than 
a political or statutory crime. Murder and highway 
robbery had been very prevalent, so much so, that 



232 MEXICO. 



no one was safe, until the department of the Rurales 
in the army was created, which is made up of these 
outlaws, who are Spanish-Mexicans. Now, the coim- 
try is perfectly safe to travel. 

I was much surprised at the humane manner in 
which the police arrested and handled their prisoners ; 
and our police in the United States might take les- 
sons there every day in humanity, if they have not al- 
together passed that grade. 

I will give an instance: I saw a policeman arrest 
a drunken man, an old man, in that stage of intoxi- 
cation, when he was, at once, boisterous, insolent, 
mean, stubborn, and funny. An American police- 
man would have hit him on the head with his club, 
notwithstanding his pitiful age, and called the patrol 
wagon; but the Mexican policeman talked and joked 
with him, all the time moving in the proper direction; 
and, before the fellow was aware of what was going 
to happen, he was behind the bars, where he would 
be given a good chance to sober up, and later, work 
out his fine on the streets. 

I cannot believe that men who can be humane as 
policemen can be guilty of all the crimes laid to the 
doors of the native Mexicans by the Spanish-Mexi- 
cans. 

Police-court crimes, so far as I could observe, are 
punished by imprisonment in a city jail and by work 
on the streets or for the city. 

Capital crimes are punished by death, but I have 
forgotten whether by hanging or shooting, although 
I have the impression that the criminal is shot. 

A great many of those guilty of what we commonly 
call penitentiary offenses in the United States are al- 



SOCIAL. 233 



lowed to serve their time as soldiers in the army, a 
most vicious and demoralizing scheme, because a 
country's soldiers should always be recruited from 
among its best citizens. Whatever the necessities of 
warfare may be, convicts and hirehngs should never 
be found in any army in the time of peace. One can 
forgive his antagonist, but can never forgive or for- 
get a hireling. To me the word Hessian sounds the 
most repulsive in language; and a hundred years 
after the Revolution, in that part of the country where 
I was born and raised, no greater contempt can yet 
be shown a man than to call him a Hessian. The 
British could be forgiven, but the Hessians never. 

Our system of criminal procedure is founded on 
wealth, upon aristocracy, which allows the man of 
means, when arrested, to furnish bail, or to be dis- 
charged on his own recognizance, as the phrase goes, 
to appear at his trial, while the man without friends 
or means, although innocent, must go to jail, and 
there await his trial. Pending the trial, the man of 
means may remove to another state or country, and 
thus free himself from the consequences of conviction. 
When the trial is reached, the man of means may 
have a great array of legal hghts, reflecting the majesty 
of the law in the eyes of the judge, or a battery of big 
guns booming in his ears, or both; "And the court, 
being fully advised, doth find and adjudge" in his 
case, upon the authority of his counsel; while the 
man without means, throwing himself on the mercy 
of the court, without counsel, and, although inno- 
cent, is often found guilty, as the easiest way of recon- 
ciling his case with his misfortune. When the man 
of means is convicted, he may pay a fine, and pass 



234 MEXICO. 



immediately into the best society, but from which he 
had, indeed, not departed; and, when the man with- 
out means has been found guilty, although innocent, 
he must languish in jail, losing health and spirit and 
honor, to be ever afterward regarded with suspicion, 
and stamped with disgrace. 

So where is our boasted equal protection of the laws? 

The granting of franchises for the performance of 
particular acts or the conduct of a business has be- 
come a widespread and crying evil, as well as a great 
crime against society, of which every one calls to 
mind numerous instances, to the unequal advantage 
of men of money, in this case, and, generally, to the 
detriment of all the community. More evils and mo- 
nopolies are now created among us, and crimes com- 
mitted, by this method than by the kings of Europe 
by their letters patent during the sixteenth century, 
that century of unlimited monarchy and universal 
loot. 

Prison discipline in Mexico is such that a man does 
not care to get twice in the toils of the law ; and, while 
the prisoners are not cruelly treated, yet they are 
punished in fact by what they are required to do. 

In the United States, punishment for crime has 
always fallen short of its purpose; and our system 
is an unquahfied failure; yet everybody knows how 
to run, not only the systems of crimes and punish- 
ments in China and Russia, but those governments in 
detail as well. 

In Mexico, marriage is now, and for some years past 
has been, a civil institution, the law prescribing that 



SOCIAL. 235 



only certain civil officers shall solemnize it; that a 
public record shall be kept of it; and that children 
must be registered in the same office. 

This, however, while the general law of the country, 
is not always done; and I was told that only about 
one-tenth of the marriages were legal; but my own 
investigations showed that the proportion of legal 
marriages was even less than one-tenth. 

This means that more than nine-tenths of the con- 
jugal unions of Mexico are illegal, and that the off- 
spring of such unions are not entitled to inherit from 
their parents; but they lose nothing, because their 
parents have nothing to leave to them, except the 
heritage of poverty. 

I am speaking, in this particular, of the natives, as 
the descendants of the Spaniards marry according to 
the laws of the country. 

The church, therefore, has no power to perform the 
marriage ceremony; but those who have a conscience 
in the matter have both the civil and the church cere- 
mony performed. 

The illegal marriages of the natives are performed 
mostly by the priest; but, in some instances, I was 
told, the ceremonies of the aboriginal tribes are still 
in vogue; and, as anything short of the fulfillment 
of the requirements of the general law of the country 
is illegal, these aboriginal ceremonies are quite as 
good as those of the church. 

Some tales are told about these aboriginal cere- 
monies which do not bear repetition in print; and, 
not possessing information, and I hope not experi- 
ence, to confirm or confute, I will refer those who feel 
much pride in the dignity of their Christian sacra- 



236 MEXICO. 



ment to the first five centuries of our era, in which 
they may examine the history of this institution; 
and, if they are not abundantly satisfied, they may 
add the sixth century, and all others, indeed, down 
to about the twelfth, if their thirst for information 
on this subject seems insatiable. 

What I want to convey is, that central and western 
Europe had better hang their heads pretty low, and 
say nothing while other people are making sport about 
social customs and practices. 

Among us, I mean the Europeans and their de- 
scendants in America, the institution of marriage has 
taken the other course, being altogether a civil con- 
tract until Pope Innocent III made it a sacrament, 
as the legal works on the marriage contract inform us. 

Divorces, none. 

With kind regards to the United States, Canada 
and Europe. 

Well, what do you think about it, because you 
know? 

I must be understood to be speaking about the 
native Mexicans, as I know nothing about this phase 
of the social life of the descendants of the Spaniards 
in Mexico, who make up, I think, about two percent 
of the population of the country, and surely not to 
exceed five percent. I could not learn, and I did 
not have time to examine the court records; but, if 
court records in Mexico in divorce cases conform no 
closer to the fact than our own, I could not have se- 
cured any information as to the true state of affairs, 
except as to the number only of the cases pending 
and decided. 



SOCIAL, 237 



The facts regarding the social condition of a people, 
or even a small community, are most difficult, if not 
impossible, to obtain, by personal inquiry. 

For instance, let the liquor question be agitating a 
town, and about half the people you meet will tell 
you that you could not get a drink of whisky for love 
or money ; that the town is absolutely dry ; and they 
will enlarge on the questions of morals; that the 
town is so clean; no gambling now; no bad women; 
no temptation to the young: while the other half 
will tell you that all kinds of drinks can be bought 
everywhere, and they volunteer to take you and 
show you; that now even children patronize these 
places ; that the criminal occupations only known in 
cities are now most open and shamelessly pursued. 

These opposite and inconsistent statements leave 
you just where you commenced — in doubt, with a 
great mass of evidence, which determines nothing, 
and you have the question on your hands just as you 
began the investigation. 

Now, you have two ways open for the decision of 
the question : first, by direct observation and personal 
investigation of the facts themselves ; and, second, by 
examining into the credibility of the witnesses. 

By all means take the first course, discarding the 
second in all possible cases. I speak from experi- 
ence. While writing this very article, and, glancing 
out of the window to catch an idea, I observed a load 
of beer cases on a wagon, stacked up as high as a 
load of hay, followed by a wagon-load of ice. Mine 
is a prohibition town; but, in practice, there seems 
to be, in reality, a double negative, that people are 
prohibited not to drink. 



238 MEXICO. 



I have read many times in our daily papers that the 
"town is dry/' while the very next issue of the paper 
would give an account of the ''pulling of joints." 

The most uncertain thing on earth is human testi- 
mony. Interest is what controls people's thoughts 
and shapes their words. To pass upon the weight 
of testimony, you must first determine the interest 
of the witness. The old rule for the establishment 
of fact, that "In the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every word shall be estabhshed," overlooks entirely 
the interest of the witness, as well, also, as his veracity. 

I saw the people bury their dead. I sauntered up 
toward an open grave where the last scene in the 
tragedy of life was closing; but, as I drew near, all 
the people standing around suddenly stopped their 
devotions, and gazed very curiously at me, at which 
I felt much confused; and, stooping down, as if to 
read an inscription on a gravestone, I withdrew more 
quietly than I had been approaching. Perhaps I had 
been very rude, because I noticed that these poor 
people are very sentimental about death. 

The harsh manners and severe means with which 
the people of Europe, and we, their descendants in 
America, had, until recently, buried our dead, is here 
replaced by the most anxious concern and tender 
sympathy in consigning to the tomb the earth, earthy, 
buried in flowers, before the earth, really, closes over 
it forever. 

This shows that we are becoming civihzed, because 
human passions relent at death, and, from that scene, 
the changes in our life may be reckoned. 

I met on the road, going into town, a man carrying 



SOCIAL. 239 



on his head a Httle open coffin containing the body of a 
child perhaps two years old, almost hidden in flowers. 
This poor man may have journeyed many, many 
miles with his precious burden with its upturned face 
to that heaven where it had already gone, for the ser- 
vice of a priest who could do nothing but take his 
money. 

Another corpse, that of an adult, I saw carried into 
town on the shoulders of four men, to receive the same 
last mysterious rites. 

Sometimes, where great distances are to be covered, 
the corpse is placed in a Utter swung between two 
burros, one walking ahead of the other, the Utter be- 
ing supported from poles lashed to their sides. 

People of the towns which have street cars or tram- 
ways, usually employ this means for conveying their 
dead to the cemetery on the outskirts of the place; 
and, in the City of Mexico, the street-car company 
provides regular funeral trains. 

Horses and mules are so scarce in Mexico, and bur- 
ros of little use except for pack-purposes, that this 
mode of conveyance becomes a great necessity. 

I think the street-car companies in all cities should 
be encouraged to inaugurate a system of this kind, 
as it would prove profitable to the companies, and 
reUeve the pubUc against the extortion of hack-hire, 
which is now one of the chief horrors of death. 

Amusements, games and pastimes now claim our 
attention. 

Guadalajara has an immense theater, said by people 
there to have been the largest in the world at the time 
it was built, over twenty years ago, for which I could 



240 MEXICO. 



not vouch; but in this theater, I saw my only play 
in Mexico. I would not try to name it, for fear it 
would not come when I called it; but it began with a 
condemnation of, or, rather, a tirade against, society, 
ending, as those matters usually end, in an entire 
alhance with society. 

To describe the whole play would take about as 
long as to act it, so I will only say something about its 
most striking features. 

The star, of the ultra-emotional type, appeared 
early in the performance, in her private dressing-room 
with her maid, who assisted her to undress from what 
seemed to be her street habit, disrobing until long 
after the danger hne had been reached, powdering 
herself and smoking cigarettes, while the maid did 
the rest; and, not only this, but during the while, 
some six or eight men, representing so many char- 
acters in the play, made frequent visits to her private 
dressing-room, and sometimes all were there at once. 
This did not look like anything I had ever been used 
to, so I glanced around to see how others were taking 
it, but observing indifference depicted on the face of 
everybody else, I remained in fashion. I could see 
no relation of all this to the play, unless it was to fur- 
nish the proper takeoff to the inveighing against so- 
ciety, which was then going on in the center of the 
stage; and it was certainly a takeoff, even to shoes 
and stockings. 

If this had ended it, perhaps the Hberties of the 
stage would have accounted for what would have 
been otherwise outrageous; but this was not all. 
After the play had gotten along to that point, where 
the star had become infatuated with another woman's 



SOCIAL. 241 



husband, and was trying to win him away from her, 
and; when it became necessary for her to change 
radiance, gUmmer or twinkle, as you wish to call it, 
she retired, in company with this man, to her private 
dressing-room, this time alone, did her own undress- 
ing until it came to the unlacing of the corset-strings; 
this she could not do, and asked her man to unlace 
them for her, which, when doing, she staggered several 
times in a vain attempt to fall into his arms, which 
he avoided on the pretense that he thought she was 
losing her balance on account of the difficulty of the 
task. 

The audience remained impassive, and so did I, as 
I did not want them to think this was my first time 
at the theater; but I blush, even now, to relate it. 

The upshot of the thing finally was a mistaken 
identity between the man she was really after and the 
man she thought she was after, and the happy turn- 
ing of the play was that the star had not, in reality, 
met the husband of her rival, but a man of the same 
name, and of like description, who was free to con- 
tract the marriage relation; and, if this had been the 
event of the play, I presume '^poetic justice" would 
have been done; but it was not, as the play ended in 
a complete breakup between the star and her man, 
he leaving in a towering rage, while she remained 
weeping and howling. 

I cannot imagine any greater monstrosity and in- 
decency than this; but it was viewed by a large au- 
dience of the best people, in appearance at least, 
I had seen in the country; and, judging from the man- 
ner they behaved themselves, the play must have been 
all right. I add my conclusion that this play was a 



242 MEXICO. 



faithful representation of Spanish-Mexican manners; 
and I was glad to see not a single native Mexican 
present. 

The play was acted in the Spanish language, in 
which was a great mixture of English, partially in- 
telligible to me; and this fact, in connection with 
the acting itself, enabled me to keep the run of the 
plot. 

The Spanish-Mexicans are so demonstrative in con- 
versation, that, when once accustomed to their ges- 
tures, shruggings, grimaces, poses, one can catch the 
tenor of what they are saying though he does not 
understand the language at all. So essential, indeed, 
do the arms appear to be that one would be justified 
in the conclusion that an armless Spanish-Mexican 
could not talk. 

Moving-picture shows were the only things attract- 
ing attention at the theaters in the City of Mexico, 
which form of amusement seemed just to have taken 
the country, that so I can say nothing of high society 
at the capital, at least in its theatrical propensities. 

The phonograph seemed also to be just making its 
first general eruption. 

As among all primitive people, dancing is, also, a 
favorite and prevailing amusement and pastime. 

Baseball teams occasionally stray into the country 
from the United States, there being no domestic teams. 

No football ; and, in short, none of the games called 
athletic, or where personal strength is in contest. 

Chicken-fighting is very common in the country, 
but this is the work of the natives, and conducted 
on about the same lines as in the United States. 

The greatest of all events in Mexico is the bull-fight, 



SOCIAL. 243 



a description of which I will give by an extract from 
a letter dated City of Mexico, Mexico, Sunday, Febru- 
ary 24, 1907. 

I spent to-day in this city, walking about alone dur- 
ing the forenoon, observing the general outward ap- 
pearance of the place, visiting the markets, because 
now, as in the days of the Aztecs, then the fifth, but 
now the first day of the week, was and is the great 
market-day all over the country, such as is seen in 
our own country in the large towns and cities, which 
still maintain the custom of a market-day; visiting, 
also, the parks, other public places and buildings, the 
churches, and, especially, the cathedral, immense and 
magnificent, where worship, at seventeen altars, may 
simultaneously progress, without disturbing one an- 
other; but I will not attempt a description of the 
things I saw, as that would be to write a book. 

Being alone in a metropolitan city in a foreign land, 
is an experience which everyone, at some time in his 
life, should seek to have. A panorama of my life 
passed before me, such as is described by men rescued 
from drowning. With a distinctness more vivid than 
imagination I saw, or rather reUeved, my whole life; 
but what I had intended to write about more particu- 
larly was a bull-fight I attended this afternoon, as 
they are usually held on Sunday afternoon. 

I went to the arena, and went early; $5 admits one 
to the shady side (sombre), and $2, to the sunny side 
(el sol) ; I enter, and find a circular ground-space about 
two hundred feet in diameter, surrounded by rising 
steps or seats, much resembling what we have all 
seen at the circus, where four adult members of the 
family are required to take the six-year-old to see the 



244 MEXICO. 



animals; but I, of course, disclaim any such curios- 
ity; I went for anthropological purposes. 

Three or four hundred soldiers, acting as police, be- 
cause, in Mexico, all soldiers are poUce, stationed half 
on either side of the arena, at the junction of the 
shadow with the sun, made by the high barrier all 
around, a company of firemen, and a few spectators 
had preceded me. The crowd rapidly gathers; and 
I watch, with close attention, and deep interest, to 
see what manner of men patronize such a place. Aside 
from the soldiers, all native Mexicans, or rather na- 
tive Indians, or still more properly, descendants of the 
aborigines, I see but one, one only, single and alone, 
of that race as spectators. 

What could furnish a more striking example than 
this of what existed at Jersualem, before the present 
entente, when the Turk had to maintain an army there 
to keep the peace among the contending bands of 
Christians, who came on worshipful pilgrimages to 
the Holy City! 

The remainder of the audience is made up of the 
descendants of the Spaniards, who conquered, I will 
not say settled, the country, and foreign residents 
and visitors. I estimate the crowd at 12,000 to 15,000, 
about equally divided between sombre and el sol, 
representing, as you will find by calculation, a hand- 
some gate-receipt of nearly $50,000, to all of which 
my presence and my money added their due propor- 
tion. 

I have taken my position near the arena enclosure 
by the partition between the shady and the sunny 
sides, that I may get the most advantageous view of 
the audience as well as of the arena, as I want to ob- 



SOCIAL. 245 



serve the people as well as the performance. If I had 
had $50 to give to see a bull-fight, I could have had 
a seat in a box, and enjoyed, on terms of perfect 
familiarity, for such is Spanish manners, the company 
of the overdressed, or perhaps, to speak more correctly, 
the underdressed, mostly ladies of the upper-tendom, 
who came here, as did their swarthy sisters centuries 
ago in the Eternal City, to enjoy the pastime of the 
arena. 

O Rome, Rome, no wonder that thou art still howl- 
ing! Never more than a savage in thy palmiest days, 
thy baleful influence is still abroad to curse the world! 

The audience assembled, the time arrives, a bugle 
sounds, a gate opens, enter the bull-fighters (matadors) 
on foot, accompanied by their assistants on foot and 
on horseback (picadors). The applause is great, as 
they parade the arena, bowing right and left, then 
back, and, exit. In an instant, the bull-fighters, ac- 
companied by their foot assistants only, reenter in- 
formally; in another instant, a gate at another part 
of the arena is opened, and in rushes a furious black 
bull, which my "libretta" has informed me is of the 
"Spanish type," furious by nature, and made more 
so by hunger and art. He makes a mad rush for his 
antagonists, who flee before his onslaught, taking 
refuge by jumping over a stout plank fence about 
six feet high, encircling the arena, beyond which is a 
space about four feet wide, the supports of the first 
tier of seats forming its outer boundary, and extend- 
ing five or six feet above the top of the fence. This 
looks handsomely for the bull, as he has cleared the 
arena at the first dash, and he received great applause, 
the ladies clapping their hands, laughing heartily, and 



246 MEXICO. 



waving their handkerchiefs, — all to the bull, you un- 
derstand! One by one the fighters and their assistants 
on foot crawl back over the fence, if the bull has not 
gone over the fence after them, in which case, he is 
driven around to the gate, and reentered there; and 
the first scene is then repeated. On the second on- 
slaught, the fighter who is eventually to kill the bull, 
takes his red cape, and flaunts it; the bull rushes for 
the cape; the fighter steps aside, jerking the cape also 
in time to prevent its being carried off on the horns 
of the bull; but, if the rush is too wild, and the bull 
takes for his antagonist rather than the cape, it may 
again be necessary for the fighter to take refuge be- 
hind this barricade, the fence, and the bull has scored 
another; but the bull, like men, having a weakness 
for appearance rather than reaUty, charges the red 
with great impetuosity, which is always jerked out 
of his way just in time for him to miss it; and here 
we are again reminded of the doings of men. This 
flaunting of the cape and charging of the bull are re- 
peated until his ardor commences to cool, and his 
body to tire, when he seems to reflect, as he comes to 
a stop, contemplating the red cape with an expression 
which seems to say: ''This is all a joke, and there is 
nothing there anyway!" When this point is reached, 
the bull, having given up the fight with his imaginary 
red enemy, and will no longer charge, the fighter takes 
two iron rods about three feet long, with spearheads 
on the end, and the shaft trimmed with cut paper of 
various colors to make it conspicuous, takes his sta- 
tion about one hundred feet distant from the bull, 
having one of these lances (banderillos) in each hand, 
waves them in the air, attracts the notice of the bull, 



SOCIAL. 247 



until he makes a charge for the fighter, who runs to- 
ward the bull at the same time; and, just the instant 
before meeting, the fighter steps quickly aside, and 
plunges the lances into the shoulders of the bull as he 
lunges by; this is again repeated, four lances being 
placed in the shoulders of the bull, which swing at 
his every move, causing intense pain, so that, for a 
short time, the bull turns mad fighting, or trying to 
fight, these lances, as they swing from his shoulders; 
but soon turns his fury on his antagonist, and the red- 
cape performance is repeated until the bull again gives 
it up; then new antagonists are brought in, men on 
horseback (picadors), with their horses blindfolded, 
riding around to attract the attention of the bull, and 
again rouse him to do battle with the horse, which he 
plunges with his horn in the flank or breast, drawing 
great streams of blood, or opening the abdominal 
cavity, so that the entrails of the horse drop out and 
drag on the ground, while the horse, blindfolded, and 
not able to locate his slayer, protect himself, or get 
away, becomes frantic in his extreme peril. If, after 
this encounter, the horse is still able to go, he is quickly 
taken from the arena to be dispatched outside. Only 
three horses were allowed the honor of dying in the 
arena, while the number taken out, after being mor- 
tally wounded, must have been six or eight. One 
horse, in particular, charged madly across the arena, 
his entrails dragging on the ground, kicking at them as 
he went, as if at his tormentor, to the great, loud and 
prolonged applause of the spectators. Accustomed, 
as I am, to fearful sights, this was too much for me, 
and I carry a mental impression Hke a horrible night- 
mare, from which I wdll doubtless suffer the remainder 



248 MEXICO. 



of my life. This over, the bull is again made to charge 
his red enemy, though not now the red cape of the 
matador, but a small scarlet cloth, which the fighter 
hangs on a stick about the length of a walking-stick, 
much resembling a flag, and this is repeated until 
the bull, again recovering from his madness engendered 
by his goring the horse, begins to tire, and to fall al- 
most from exhaustion. We are now approaching the 
final act of the tragedy. The matador, taking his red 
flag in his left hand, projects it to his right side, having 
in his right hand a long, sharp-pointed sword; he 
flaunts the flag, in this position, at the bull, which 
charges; and, as he lowers his head, in an effort to 
gore the flag, the matador plunges his sword into his 
neck just in front of his shoulders on the right side, 
in a downward and backward line, in an attempt to 
pierce the heart, which, if he does, the bull falls in- 
stantly to the ground; but, if he miss the heart, which 
he almost always does, and pierce the lungs, the bull, 
suffering intense agonies, turns round and round, the 
blood streaming from his mouth; and, in a few mo- 
ments, slowly sinks down to the ground, dying, while 
the audience is going wild with shouts and applause, 
the ladies waving their handkerchiefs, and becoming 
hysterical with transports of dehght. 

This terrible scene is soon closed by an assistant 
who runs up, takes a short, sharp dagger and plunges 
it into the bull's neck just back of the horns, sever- 
ing the spinal cord, which gives a tremendous nervous 
shock; and the bull, struggling and quivering all over 
for an instant, expires. A team of mules is then 
hurriedly driven in, a chain thrown quickly around 
the bull's horns, the team attached, the carcass drawn 



SOCIAL. 249 



on the run from the arena, the gate closed behind it, 
and this terrible tragedy, which ought to make even 
the statue of Nero shudder, is over. 

But, no, no ; the performance is not over ; five more 
bulls must be killed in the identical way, without the 
least variance from any of the particulars of the first; 
five times more must these horrors of hell be repeated, 
to the infinite gratification of the fiends, I will not say 
people, who fill this abyss, in order to complete the 
performance; and five more bulls, in succession, are 
brought in; horses gored to death, defenseless and 
blindfolded; blood flows in torrents; death is in- 
flicted in the most cruel and agonizing ways, all to the 
greatest dehght and entertainment, and pastime, if 
you please, of the spectators! 

This arena, this hole, seems to me the abyss of hell, 
these performers archdemons, this audience fiends; 
and I imagine that I have, hke Ulysses, made the de- 
scent into hell. I am steeped in blood; and, hke 
Ulysses, long for the upper air; but I am detained, 
hke him, by a ghostly apparition, another horror. 

The programme is complete ; for the last half of the 
performance, a cold, drizzling rain has been falling, 
and the spectators are becoming wet to the skin ; but 
they are not wilhng to quit this terrible slaughter; 
cries of "otro!" (another), and 'Horro!" (bull), are 
so loud, long and persistent, that, notwithstanding 
the rain and the cold, a seventh bull must be brought 
in, and dispatched, in all particulars, hke the other 
six. "Insatiable fiends!" I groan. 

I have now seen a bull-fight, and I regret it, but, you 
know, I am an anthropologist, and came for scientific 
purposes. How would I know what a bull-fight was, 



250 MEXICO. 



if I had not seen one? How could I philosophize on 
the frailties of man, if I had not lived in the world? 
The nation, the people, the individuals, maintain- 
ing or countenancing such an institution are worse 
than savages, for no savages have ever done anything 
so foolishly cruel. Rome, that cradle of crime, can 
yet survey the devastation she has wrought; and her 
descendants, by no means confined to her ancient 
hills, are the most criminal and bloodthirsty in the 
world. 

The doctor and the occasion for his profession are 
most closely related to the social condition. 

Doctors are scarcer than lawyers in Mexico; the 
natives get along almost entirely without them ; and 
I am afraid, the Spanish-Mexicans are in but little 
better condition with them. The profession of doctor, 
the very word being an equivalent of learning, is the 
most unlearned profession in the world. Recently I 
saw an article in a periodical, giving the number of 
persons graduating from medical institutions in the 
United States, and the number passing the official 
boards of examination, as only a few in excess of half ; 
and the article went on to state that half of those pass- 
ing were not qualified to practice medicine, which 
would bring the number of the efficient, under present 
laws, down to about one-fourth the number graduating. 
Casting out of the equation the influence of state boards 
of examination in the elevation of the medical profes- 
sion as an influence on the student in college, we have 
the surprising result that prior to the establishment 
of the state boards, three fourths of all the practicing 
physicians were incompetent, assuming that all 



SOCIAL. 251 



graduates practiced; while, now, the proportion of 
incompetents is reduced to one-half the number of 
practitioners and the number of practitioners to one- 
half the total number of graduates, the other half f aihng 
to pass the state boards. 

Nobody knows the truth of these figures better than 
the doctors themselves, and nobody at all, except 
themselves, appreciates the fact. 

I was well treated by all the doctors I met in Mexico, 
and am under personal obligations to some of them; 
but I must not let that interfere with what I write; 
and, if I let such matters control my thoughts and 
what I write, I would be asking the attention and 
interest of my reader with a very bad grace, although 
we all do know of instances where writers have asked 
to be excused from telling the truth on account of 
courtesies extended or favors received. 

I saw one prescription written, while in Mexico, and 
that was for acute alcohohsm, consisting of equal 
parts of opium and morphine. The patient lived. 

All the doctors I saw were Spanish-Mexicans, ex- 
cept one from the United States, and he wanted to 
come back to the United States. 

What first called my attention to the state of the 
public health in Mexico was the very large number of 
cases of pulmonary tuberculosis — consumption, as we 
commonly say — everywhere present in the country, 
among all classes, and in all conditions. 

Lack of proper clothing, food, shelter, fuel and san- 
itation, in an incongenial chmate at a high altitude, 
arresting development, and producing a general phys- 
ical weakness, is the full and complete explanation. 

The remedy lies in the prevention. 



252 MEXICO. 



Almost the whole category of diseases might be 
produced as the result of the deplorable condition in 
which the people live; but I will mention only those 
coming to my attention. 

Next to tuberculosis, as a terrible factor in the con- 
dition of the pubhc health, I think I am safe in naming 
the diseases of the alimentary canal, due to raw, un- 
wholesome, improper and ill-prepared food and bad 
water. When I reflect on the amount of infection 
in their food and drink, I am greatly surprised that 
anyone can survive the vicissitudes of a year. On 
account of a very high impost on paper, rendering its 
use almost prohibitory, meats are handled without 
any covering, sometimes lying on a large leaf of a tree, 
but usually carried, suspended by a string; without 
ice also, except in a very few of the larger cities; but 
very indifferently cooked over a slow fire; and eaten, 
where the people can afford it, in large quantities. In 
one town of about twenty-five hundred or three thou- 
sand people, where I stayed, there being no hotel, I 
secured accommodations in a family residence, where 
I was treated royally, and shown a touch of high life 
to which I was not accustomed. At the Sunday din- 
ner, served in banquet style, six courses of meats were 
served in succession; but I dropped out after the 
second, although the others at table held out for the 
six. Everything else was on the same scale; and I 
was figuratively the only person to be put under the 
table early in each series, which created a very bad 
impression as to what I had been used to ; but I could 
not help it, as I had an intense desire to see the United 
States again before I died. Nobody, eating in this 
manner, even of good food, could expect to be healthy 



SOCIAL. 253 



or live long; but is likely to die at any time in a fit of 
gluttony. For the admiration of my temperance 
friends, I should say I did not find a wineglass by my 
plate, but only a quart bottle. Such gluttony presents 
a striking contrast with the general poverty and pri- 
vation of the people. 

When I touch upon domestic life, I shall have more 
to say about the manner of cooking and eating. 

Water, for drinking and culinary use, is obtained 
from running streams, almost without exceptions; 
and I do not remember seeing a single well in the coun- 
try, except for railroad supply. When the dry season 
has existed for such a length of time as to allow all 
surface-water to drain off, and only the supply from 
the deep springs remains, it is comparatively pure; 
but, during all the rainy season, it can only be abomi- 
nable, and the great wonder to me is, that anybody 
can drink it and Hve. People might have deep well- 
water, that purest of all supplies, but they are living 
under the same customs, as, no doubt, did their an- 
cestors in the morning of the world at the same places. 

Following the alimentary diseases due to improper 
food and bad water, I will place smallpox, evidenced 
everywhere by the pitted face to the extent that one 
must conclude that it is prevalent in the whole country 
the year round. 

A great deal of anxiety existed among the Americans 
in the city, while I was there, on account of a number 
of deaths due to smallpox in their ranks, occurring in 
'rapid succession; and an American, with whom I 
traveled a few days, told me he had had it twice. I 
felt no alarm at the danger of death myself, because 



254 MEXICO. 



I had occupied a traveling position by railroad for 
about eighteen years, and had never received a scratch. 

Sanitation is the prevention for smallpox, provided 
everybody is obliged to keep clean. 

Following smallpox, I place death from starvation, 
in which I will include all those deteriorating influences 
due to lack of proper clothing and properly warmed 
and ventilated shelter. The poor people of Mexico, 
and that means about ninety-five percent of them, 
live on the ground. Now, call over the acts of eating, 
sleeping, working, resting, and you have it, if you do 
not comprehend the full force of the statement that 
they live on the ground. They have simply appro- 
priated a spot of earth around which, on the plateaus, 
they have built mud or stone walls, sometimes not as 
compact as a stone fence, usually with earthen roof; 
and, in the tierra caliente, or hot country, have walled 
themselves in with a stockade of sticks, cornstalks or 
sugarcane, but sometimes with rushes, with roofs 
usually of grasses. On the plateaus, where the cli- 
mate is inhospitable, and, sometimes, severe, people 
have no fuel for heating purposes, but only a small 
amount of sticks, cornstalks, or such like, for cooking 
after the most primitive forms. 

For clothing, they have one layer of a thin cptton 
cloth, and always a blanket, which serves as a wrap 
during the day and a bed at night. Folding themselves 
in this blanket, they He down on the ground, or sit 
up against the wall, and sleep. Barefoot always, with 
the exception of the men who wear sandals of their 
own make, consisting of a piece of common sole- 
leather, attached to the foot with straps. 

In the terribly big hat, the sombrero, is where we 



SOCIAL. 255 



strike their extravagance, but most of them, however, 
can only afford poor and cheap ones. 

Their food is never sufficient to sustain fife properly, 
and is often down to a sort of siege basis, so that they 
lack full growth and proper development; and the 
starvation, in the large sense in which I have employed 
tl^e term, is of slow progress. Those who survive 
infancy and youth, with this insufficient and bad diet, 
frequently dry up, become mummified, in their old 
age. I have seen many old people of no perceptible 
frame except skin and bone, apparent mummies, pre- 
senting the most dejected and pitiable sight imaginable; 
but no state, however deplorable, has ever been too 
lamentable not to be the object of man's levity; and 
people say that these poor wretches are walking around 
to save funeral expenses. On the same principle, the 
French speak about the massacres of St. Bartholomew 
as the matins. 

In infancy and in youth, the number of deaths due 
to lack of nourishment, if starvation seems too strong 
a term, is simply appalling. Think of an undertaker 
having, as his sign, a little coffin, swinging from a 
string over his door! This is the usual sign in Mexico. 

The government of Mexico take notice! In France, 
in the greatness of the reign of Louis XIV, and in the 
pinnacle of his glory, one-fourth of the people were in a 
starving condition. The wrongs which thin the ranks 
of the people, whether from oppression or in useless 
wars, are the knell of nations, which we overlook, be- 
cause they die more slowly than individuals ; and their 
extreme activity, on approaching dissolution, is but 
abnormal exhibitions of strength produced by the 
powerful irritation from the severance of their cord. 



256 MEXICO. 



After starvation, I place nervous degeneration from 
all the causes and conditions heretofore mentioned. 
People whose nerve degeneracy has knit their muscles 
into rigidity are very numerous. The doctors here 
would call this rheumatism, but it is not. 

I have seen these poor wretches doubled up three- 
ply in absolute rigidity, their chin resting on their 
knees and their heels touching their buttocks. This 
is the bodily posture in which I have seen people fold 
themselves to sleep, to economize heat by contact, as 
well as to adapt themselves to the size of their blanket. 
This position frequently assumed and long continued 
has become fixed. 

Next I place pneumonia, the prevalence of which 
can be understood by simply referring to the mode 
of life of the people and the climate of the plateaus 
already described. 

Then I place acute alcoholism. In a statement of 
the number of deaths occurring in the City of Mexico 
during one week while I was in the country, seven 
percent were reported to have died from alcoholism. 
I have used- the expression acute alcoholism, because 
they go mighty fast. Tequila and mescal do not let 
them linger long on the way, which I think not with- 
out their benefits, because, if a man is determined to 
become a snake-fancier, he ought to be furnished the 
facility to make it quick, and rid society, not only of 
his disgrace, but a useless man as well. 

Some of the women of Mexico, notwithstanding their 
terrible physical condition, are creatures of very great 
beauty, of that full-tone effect, so necessary to ex- 
pression of countenance, a countenance here of that 



SOCIAL. 257 



sadness which inspires pity, and mingles solicitude 
with admiration. 

To northern Europe and their descendants in Amer- 
ica, this is not the type of beauty any more than our 
type is acceptable to the southern countries, where 
our damsels are referred to as 'Hhe pale, unripe beau- 
ties of the north." 

And now I am done with the pubhc health, as I 
observed very little else, and, even if I had, the enter- 
ing on minute details would be undesirable in a sketch 
of this kind. 

The following account of a trip to Panindicuaro is 
taken, with shght changes, from a letter I wrote on 
the evening of my arrival at that place. I had in- 
tended to rewrite this account, to make the style 
correspond with that of the remainder of the work; 
but I found, on attempting to do so, that my new 
version sounded terribly flat, as compared with the 
letter, and is here given as showing the life of the 
people. 

This letter, and the one giving an account of the 
bull-fight, are the only documents or memoranda I 
have used in writing this book. The proper way, I 
think, to write up a travel, would be to make a memo- 
randum, each evening, of the experiences of the day, 
with the passing impressions, and, then, when one 
returned home, to condense by rewriting, and giving, 
also, the results of mature reflection; but I had not 
then thought of writing up my trip; and, therefore, 
made no notes at all for that purpose. 

I arrived at Panindicuaro late Sunday, February 
10, 1907, too late, indeed, for church, but not for busi- 



258 MEXICO. 



ness, as Sunday is the great business day in Mexico. 
This place is nearly fifty miles from the nearest rail- 
road station, and cost me two days' journey, the first 
being rather uneventful, but terrible on account of the 
dust, no rain having fallen since last October ; but we 
must remember I am within the tropics. I slept last 
night on the moonlit side of a wall, with nothing beneath 
but the earth, and nothing above but heaven, as usual 
quite out of reach, when most desired, for I never had 
such a longing to go there as now. Starting early 
this morning, we had not proceeded far until all signs 
of a road had disappeared, and we had to make our 
way as best we could, often having to unhitch and 
lift our wagon over ditches and obstructions, and 
rather carrying it than its carrying us. Coming about 
noon to a hacienda in the mountains, we regaled our- 
selves, secured a new guide, and proceeded, with in- 
creased difficulties, to our destination. On arriving, 
I find we have brought into this town of nearly 3000 
inhabitants, the first four-wheeled vehicle for about 
sixty years, at which time a stage line was abandoned 
as unprofitable. I will send my wagon, driver and 
guide back to-morrow morning, and ride out the first 
day's journey on a burro, as I had to walk almost the 
entire distance coming in today, over mountains as 
rugged as only lava can make them. 

Thousands of people are to be seen here this even- 
ing, mostly engaged in the work of the fair or market 
day, not of the Mexican, but of the Aztec, for these 
people here are all Indians, native Indians, descend- 
ants of the Aztecs, Toltecs, Chichemecs, or, perhaps, the 
warhke Tlascalans, whom even the great Montezuma 
could not dislodge from their mountains, or conquer. 



SOCIAL. 259 



I went to the postofiice to mail a letter, and find no 
regular, or even irregular mail in and out, but just 
when anybody happens to go or come. The post- 
master has a cigarbox which serves the entire uses of 
the ofiice, for stamps, for letters, coming and going 
and all; yet 3000 people live here; and, I imagine, 
in almost the same condition, with the exception of a 
partial change of their religion and dress, as they have 
for untold ages, perhaps before Thebes, perhaps be- 
fore Babylon, perhaps before the Table of the Sun was 
spread. When I compare their art and civihzation, 
as I see them here in stone, with what I have seen in 
books of that of Egypt, I conclude this is older; but 
I may be too much impressed with my surroundings 
to be able to comprehend that anything in the world 
could be older. This similarity between the arts of 
early Egypt and those of Mexico is so striking that 
no one can overlook it, and it has been noticed from 
the earhest discoveries. 

Some imagine that all manners, customs, habits 
and laws, differing from their own, are savage, or, at 
least, barbarous; but a little travel would convince 
them that some of the greatest monuments have been 
erected by savages, and that greatness is no criterion 
of merit. 

A nation that has had just and equitable laws, 
courts with judges, independent of the crown, to en- 
force them, a government which protects the citizen, 
• securing him in the possession of individual property, 
holds the rapacity of the merchant in check, has an 
organized army, sends and receives ambassadors, fos- 
ters and advances learning and the arts, even to the 
ascertainment of the cause of eclipses, is civiHzed, 



260 MEXICO. 



although it lacks the engines of death of an Inquisition 
or the controversial philosophy of the Middle Ages. 
Yes, I believe that these people were civilized while 
Europe was yet savage; and I have Draper for my 
authority in saying that Spain, in the Conquest, de- 
stroyed a civilization greater than her own, and com- 
mitted a crime on these people greater than the crime 
of eating human flesh. 

While on the way today, I had plenty of time to 
sit down while awaiting the slow progress of what I 
had expected to be my conveyance, and, partly from 
fatigue and partly from the influence of the place, 
would lean my head upon my hands and mope, which 
some would doubtless call meditation. 

Man has ever added terror to the difficulties of na- 
ture ; and here I find no exception. Along this moun- 
tain-trail, more frequent than milestones, are seen 
crosses, anchored in piles of stones, or, sometimes, 
chiseled on the lava, with an inscription; and, I am 
about to admire the faith and virtue of humanity that 
can worship God in such a place, when inquiry sud- 
denly transforms my feelings of reverence into terror; 
for I learn that these crosses of Christ here planted 
mark the places of murder and burial of some unfor- 
tunate adventurer or worthy citizen who fell at the 
hands of the descendants, in the New World, of the 
Castilian robbers of the Old; but I soon regain my 
calmness on hearing that this condition has now passed 
away; and I stop to read the inscriptions. On one, 
at the top of a mountain, just as the prospect of the 
lovely valley beyond presents itself like a picture, I 
pause a moment; but all that is left is I H S, only 
faintly discernible. This decayed and worm-eaten 



SOCIAL. 261 



cross, standing over this spot, reminds me of the top- 
mast of a sunken ship, projecting above the water, a 
monument of the wreck that Hes buried beneath. I 
pause for an instant longer, and reflect, that here, as 
did I, some weary traveler, as he reached the summit 
of this mountain, and pause with awe, contemplating, 
or rather entranced with, the beauties before him, 
was stricken down by the hands of assassins and rob- 
bers, then infesting these mountain-trails; and I 
reflect again, that these robbers are still in Mexico, as 
in our own country, waylaying us, having only changed 
their habitat from the wildernesses to the cities, where 
they now rule over us in the name of the people, ca- 
joling us with poHcies, where they formerly cudgeled 
us with clubs. 

Let those who believe the world is getting better 
reflect upon the constitution of man, which, like time, 
is subject to progress, but not to change. 

The considerate attitude of man to man, in the or- 
dinary affairs of life, is always of great interest and 
importance. 

In speaking of politeness in Mexico, I am referring 
especially to the manners of the descendants of the 
Spaniards, who, with considerable pride, refer to their 
customs as Spanish; and, as it so widely differs from 
our own, I will give some examples, because this is a 
subject where descriptions count for httle. 

Going into the City of Mexico from an outlying town, 
I took a sleeper, which I found crowded, only a few 
upper berths remaining. Two ladies and about twenty 
gentlemen made up the party. The usual stop was 
made at the supper station, which over, some of the 



262 MEXICO. 



gentlemen assembled alongside the car, near the en- 
trance, awaiting the time for departure. When the 
signal to leave town was given, these gentlemen com- 
menced disputing among themselves as to who should 
have the honor of boarding the car first, and as to who 
should precede whom generally, until the train had 
started to move quite Uvely, followed by the crowd; 
and, then, running after, grabbing and scrambling, 
they got on pellmell, as best they could, without re- 
gard even to how much one encroached on the conven- 
ience or comfort of another. I watched this pecuHar 
performance with great interest, and my curiosity was 
roused to know what would next happen. When 
aboard the car, a portion of them, as many as could, 
went into the smoking-room ; and immediately one of 
the party took, from his pocket, a package of cigarettes, 
and passed them around, because, in Mexico, every- 
body, men, women, boys, girls, absolutely everybody, 
of the Spanish blood, — and I am now speaking of them 
in particular, — ^smoke cigarettes, myself and a dog 
being the only things in Mexico I saw showing a con- 
tempt for them, the dog refusing to take a morsel of 
food from his master's hand holding a cigarette, until 
the cigarette was changed to the other hand, while my 
disgust was expressed in the revolt of my feelings. 
This smoking party seated and the cigarettes passing 
around, as stated, everybody dechned the honor of 
being first served, so that they kept going round until, 
at last, someone made the break, and, then, all partook 
readily. All served, the patron struck a match, pass- 
ing it round to the right, but everyone declined to be 
the first to light his cigarette, so that the match burned 
out, while the dispute was in progress. Another match 



SOCIAL. 263 



was then struck, when, after a few hasty offers and 
refusals, someone also took upon himself the distinc- 
tion of lighting his cigarette first, and, then, the re- 
mainder took their hghts quickly ; and all commenced 
to puff, inhale and swallow smoke, exhaling it through 
their mouths and noses simultaneously, so as to bathe 
every portion of the mouth, nose, air-passages, lungs, 
throat, gullet and stomach in smoke. At this point, 
my disgust became speakable, and I hurriedly left, 
muttering to myself those justifiable epithets which 
policy and safety, sometimes, do not permit in pubHc 
declaration. 

In church, is the only place in Mexico where people 
do not show a disposition for smoking. In the bodies 
of sleeping-cars, the practice is prohibited, but the en- 
forcement of the regulation requires constant vigilance. 
Only think of a family around their table at dinner, 
eating, drinking and smoking all at once, and the whole 
family participating! This seems to me to be the 
acme of total depravity ; yet the practice is obtaining 
in the United States, and is, in reality, not Mexican- 
Spanish, but European, the result of the prevalence, 
soon to be designated predominance, of European 
customs in the United States. When I contemplate 
the approaching condition, I shudder, and feel hke 
denying my country in advance. 

But I must finish about my sleeping-car party, 
crowded, as I have said. One of the ladies being as- 
signed to an upper berth, the conductor made a can- 
vass of the other passengers to ascertain if some gentle- 
man, occupying a lower, would show this elderly lady 
the courtesy of exchanging berths with her; but, no, 
indeed, not by a jugful! All Spanish politeness, even 



264 MEXICO. 



of the Castilian type, vanished upon the imputation 
that any individual comfort should be given up; and 
this poor old lady had to climb aloft on a stepladder, 
and undo and do her toilet, night and morning, as 
best she could. 

Had not this lady been elderly, traditional gallantry, 
so repulsive as a substitute for courtesy, might have 
come into play to change the result. 

So here is Spanish politeness; but, if my Spanish 
readers feel themselves aggrieved, I will call it Spanish 
politeness a la Mexicano, as I am personally unfa- 
miliar with manners and customs in Spain, having 
only, aside from historic works, such information as 
I have obtained by reading Cervantes, Irving, and 
Prescott. 

The thing to be known is, that the people who make 
the greatest pretensions to politeness, are the last to 
give up even the smallest personal comfort or con- 
venience; so that, in reality, their ostentations are 
merely the cloak with which they cover their mean- 
ness. Opaque to the core, their outside is made to 
glitter by rubbing. 

While I am talking of others, I will, also, say some- 
thing about ourselves, because talk is so cheap, and 
writing costs nothing; and I will stick to my subject 
closely by saying something about courtesy or polite- 
ness among ourselves. 

I must first separate the country into the East and 
the West, to conform to the prevalence of certain 
customs and manners which do not conform to pohti- 
cal divisions, nor follow geographical lines. 

Draw a line from Chicago, Illinois, to Louisville, 



SOCIAL. 265 



Kentucky, thence following the traditional Mason and 
Dixon's Line to the Atlantic. Coming back now to 
Chicago, the point of beginning, follow the chain of 
Great Lakes eastward to the east end of Lake Ontario, 
thence project a line due east to the Atlantic, reject- 
ing all that part of the United States, lying north of 
this projected Hne, as immaterial in influencing the 
general result. The Atlantic on the east completes 
the boundary of what at this time, 1907, as to manners 
and customs, constitutes the East. 

The East, thus outlined, is wedge-shaped, and it is 
wedge-shaped because its customs and manners are 
assuming a definite form. Physical and moral forces 
progress in the same manner, even as to form. 

Commencing at Louisville, Kentucky, thence down 
the Ohio to the Mississippi, excluding all the state 
of Missouri, except Kansas City, continuing from the 
southwestern corner of Missouri, swinging in almost a 
semicircle to the south to the northeast corner of the 
Panhandle of Texas, thence west on the north line of 
Texas to New Mexico, thence on a sharply zigzag and 
indefinite line to the south line of the state of Cali- 
fornia, thence to the Pacific, all that part of the United 
States lying north of this line roughly constitutes the 
West, where customs and manners have not yet differ- 
entiated, and no wedge-shaped movement is discern- 
ible. Great and daring would be the man who would 
now undertake to say that here or there will be the 
definite movements in this yet undifferentiated mass; 
but movements there will be. 

All the remainder of the United States, not above 
described as the East or the West, is the South, of 



266 MEXICO. 



wedge-shape, also, because its customs and manners 
are fixed. 

The East plus the West equals the North. 

The West will take its models from the East, but 
the South will continue distinctive and peculiar. To 
the South, there is only a North ; to the East, a West 
and a South ; to the West, an East and a South. 

These three great divisions of the United States, 
made by social conditions, are distinctive of the politi- 
cal conditions also; and distinctive moral elements 
and tendencies are not absent. 

Now, having enlarged more upon this subject than 
I had intended, I will draw a comparison. In the 
South, much the same condition exists, as to sleeping- 
car politeness, but sHghtly tempered, as in Mexico; 
in the West, a great degree of politeness and courtesy 
in pubhc exists, but could still be improved upon; 
and, in the East, people move like driftwood on a 
swollen stream, without regard to what they en- 
counter, and apparently as oblivious. If they possess 
any human feelings, they do not show them. 

Once more, as an incident on this part of the sub- 
ject, and, then, I am done: In Mexico I saw a man, 
at his own impulse and inclination, and of his own 
motion, pick up a pitcher himself, fill his own glass, 
and say Gracias! (Thanks!). Inasmuch as he was a 
lawyer, and filled his glass with water, I think his name 
should become immortal, as an example of politeness 
and temperance to the profession; but I exceedingly 
regret that I have been unable to obtain his consent, 
without which I would be incourteous to divulge his 
name, a worthy example that true merit shrinks from 
notoriety. 



SOCIAL. 267 



Since writing the foregoing, as postscripts usually 
begin, I have made a long trip from the West to the 
East and back, and had such a parallel experience, 
with opposite results, if I may be allowed such an 
expression, illustrative of what I have said, that I 
here produce it. 

On the going trip, approaching Chicago from the 
West, I arose late in the morning, as becomes a traveler 
seeking rest, entered the dining-car, was met smilingly 
by the steward, who politely helped me to a seat, 
whose smile I returned with a "Thank you," as I 
sat down to the table; and, to be agreeable as much 
as anything else, asked "Where are we this morn- 
ing?" "Just left W ," was the reply; "a little 

late, but we have a good engineer, and will make 
Chicago on the dot." "Good!" I said, and I wrote 
out an order for a large breakfast, which I greatly 
enjoyed; and, while I ate, was accosted by "How 
are you getting along; everything all right?" An- 
swer : " Swimmingly ; splendid ! " 

We did not, however, get into Chicago "on the 
dot," but about one hour late; but what did I care 
for one hour late, or two, or three, so long as I was 
pleasantly circumstanced? 

On the return trip, and coming into Chicago from 
the east, I arose late likewise at "The last call for 
breakfast in the dining-car!" entered the car, saw 
the steward standing at the opposite end, waited a 
moment for him to designate where I should sit ; but, 
as he stood looking at me impassively, I made a gesture 
to him that I would sit down at a certain table; but 
he did not nod his approval, or make any other motion 
or sign, so I hung up my hat, and helped myself to a 



268 MEXICO. 



chair. After waiting quite a while, the steward came, 
and handed me a menu ; and, as professional travelers 
get in the habit of saying the same things, and asking 
the same questions under similar circumstances daily, 
I asked, pleasantly, I hope, '' Where are we this morn- 
ing?" as everyone sleeping soundly on a train over- 
night has a desire to get his bearings when he awakes 
next morning; but the answer was mumbled and 
unintelhgible ; and, continuing, thinking to get the 
information by another question rather than ask for 
a repetition of the answer, which is not always agree- 
able, I asked again with as agreeable a rising inflec-. 
tion as I could, ''What time will we get into Chicago?" 
The answer came very gruffly and distinctly as well, 
"I don't know." Not theretofore suspecting the true 
temper and disposition of the steward, but now re- 
flecting on his first answer, it came back hke an echo 
as ''On the track." This, in itself, was indeed grati- 
fying, because, in my travels, both by rail and other- 
wise, I have not always been on the track; but that 
was not the specific information I wanted at that 
time. I still retained my temper, and said, " Of course 
you do not know when we will be in Chicago, but I 
thought maybe you could approximate the time." 
To which, as gruffly as ever, "That's hard to say." 
I ended the conversation by saying, "I see no reason 
why you should tell me anything if you are not agree- 
ably inchned." He crushed me with the contempt 
of silence. I hastily ordered a light breakfast, and 
left the car as soon as possible. Never once, while 
I was eating, did the steward come near me; he had 
thrown me my bone, and I could gnaw it or not. 
The waiter was equally indifferent; but, as I am 



SOCIAL. 269 



always experimenting with human nature, I thought 
I would see if I could warm up this crowd by a liberal 
tip, equal to half the price of my meal, to the waiter; 
but, no, indeed; he chucked it in his pocket with- 
out a word of thanks or a sign of pleasure or courtesy, 
stood by while I made a couple of unsuccessful hitches 
at my chair, hunted my hat, which one always forgets 
where he puts, set my chair back to its position at the 
table, and opened the door myself, although he was 
close by, and passed out. 

On reflection, I do not know whether to feel indig- 
nant at the waiter or ashamed of myself. Being from 
the West, I may not know the size of an Eastern tip ; 
and I do not know whether the waiter was uncivil 
or whether I offended him by the smallness of my 
donation; but I noticed, however, that almost every- 
one else gave nothing, which, if I assume the absence 
of a secret arrangement, makes my own case no more 
easily understood. I will experiment on this in the 
future; and the next time I am in the East, I will 
give the waiter double the amount I pay for my meal, 
and await the result; but, if this still brings no de- 
velopments, I will the next time hand him a ten-dol- 
lar bill; and, in commanding tones, say, ''Keep the 
change." This will doubtless have the effect of making 
the waiter think I am drunk; and, either from poHcy 
or custom or habit, will still remain mute and im- 
passive, thus leaving me as much in the dark as before 
my expensive experiment. 

Candidly, I now think courtesy and pohteness are 
not in these waiters, and cannot, therefore, be tipped 
out of them. 

We give these tips, not for the benefit of the tipped, 



270 MEXICO. 



but for our own benefit; for the obeisance of the thanks, 
the courtesy, the bow, the scrape, all of which gratify 
our vanity, making us feel a superiority over others, 
and this feeling is as well satisfied by the homage of 
slaves as of monarchs ; and, if we do not get it, we will 
not even pay ten cents ; but we do expect it for as 
small a sum as ten cents, although it sometimes costs 
monarchs half their empire, and indeed they sometimes 
lose all in a vain attempt to perpetuate it, so that we 
are able to draw the general conclusion that vanity 
is common to all mankind, and is best gratified by 
homage. 

Conditions are first individual, then social, then po- 
litical, the religious, and the aesthetic, being but modi- 
fications of, and included in, these. I have presented 
the first two, and leave the determination of the third 
to the future. 

The condition of the people of Mexico may be fur- 
ther inferred from the fact that, outside the towns and 
cities, as I was told, the whole country was owned 
by about 7000 people, which sounds quite odd in a 
country of 13,000,000 inhabitants; but, if I were to 
make my guess, after going over the country, I would 
reduce rather than increase this estimate. 

I was also told, while riding through the State of 
Chihuahua, that I was passing a distance of about 
ninety miles north and south through a tract of land 
owned by a single individual, and that it was about 
one hundred and twenty miles in the east-and-west di- 
mension. A statement like this, being beyond ex- 
perience, is also beyond belief, and certainly not au- 
thentic ; but I do know that the tract is a very large one. 



SOCIAL. 271 



The statement was also made, that this being the 
private property of one man, and no highways laid 
out across it, he was actually preventing people from 
passing over it. 

Some of these great landed proprietors live in true 
oriental splendor and magnificence after the old re- 
gime, but now seldom found there in their pristine 
grandeur, as the Orient, beginning with inequality of 
condition, is drifting toward equality of rights, while 
the Occident, beginning with equality of condition, 
and, like all things human, unable to remain stationary, 
can drift only toward inequality, so that the cradle of 
Hberty is now rocking on the other side of the world; 
and while the Sultan, shut up in his fortress, is fearful 
of the present, and anxious for the future, harems are 
openly indulged on some of the haciendas in Mexico. 

That one-half of the world does not know how the 
other half lives, is an old saying; but, notwithstand- 
ing, one would not now expect to find millions of peo- 
ple next door, living after what must be the most prim- 
itive methods in the industries, arts and sciences of 
man; yet this is what one finds in Mexico. 

I saw a woman carry home two small ears of corn in 
the husk, remove the husk, shell it by hand upon a 
stone, take another stone and pound and roll it into 
flour, take up the flour in the palm of her hand, little 
by little, mix it into a paste with water, roll and ma- 
nipulate it, pat it into a thin, a very thin, cake, bake, 
or rather dry, it on a hot hd, and eat it, as her sole food 
and only repast that day, in which feast I asked the 
very great privilege of joining, and thus I was trans- 
ported back to the morning of the world. This cake is 
the tortilla (pronounced tovteeja.). 



272 MEXICO. 



The use of the iron Hd on which to bake these cakes 
is the only thing that saved the process from that first 
used by man; had the meal been allowed to remain 
in balls, and been thrown into hot ashes, and thus 
baked, the first process of man would have been re- 
peated; had a stone been heated in the fire, and the 
flattened cakes been baked on this, the second process 
in the development of baking would have been seen; 
but, in the use of iron, as this woman employed it, the 
third, or iron age in cookjng, was reached. 

I saw here a chance to bring within my experience 
all the developments in the art of cooking, since the 
world began, for I had lived ten or more years of my 
life in boarding-houses, and I asked this poor woman to 
throw a little round piece of the moistened meal into 
the hot ashes, which, when baked, I took out and ate; 
and, I also took a stone, and put it into the fire, and, 
when hot, took it out, and laid upon it a little flattened 
cake about the size of a silver dollar, which, when baked 
I ate also; so that I now recount in my experience, 
in the art of cooking, all that the world has ever 
produced. 

You now have an example of how the majority of 
the poor Mexicans five; and you ought to be able to 
pass judgment upon the conquering Spaniards, whose 
military operations, murders and oppressions have 
brought about, and are now perpetuating, this condi- 
tion, which, I imagine, is the condition to which in- 
satiable individual and corporate greed, as now exem- 
plified in business, and domination, as uppermost 
in politics, until the reaction of the last year, would 
reduce the people of the United States. 

Human motives and passions have always been the 



SOCIAL. 273 



same, and I see no escape from this conclusion, much 
as it might be decried. 

Every saying, however ridiculously sounding to 
those unfamiliar with conditions, always has its founda- 
tion, and, sometimes, is the correct expression of fact. 

That the Mexicans take a drink of water for break- 
fast, sit on the sunny side of the house for dinner, and 
smoke a cigarette for supper, provokes a smile, if not 
laughter, on the part of everyone unfamiHar with the 
fact; but what feeling, my silken-dressed and rosy- 
cheeked, comes over you, when I tell you that this is, 
too often, the expression of reality? I am afraid that 
you are too well fed, clothed and housed, too much 
humored and too much spoiled, to appreciate that any- 
body else in the world but yourself has feehng; that, 
for your own comfort, you make the most exacting 
demands, against the comfort, the health, and the 
general well-being of others; that your heart has not 
become, but has always been, and will always remain, 
hard ; that no drop of human sympathy has ever been 
distilled within you by the dew of kindness; that, for 
a pretense only of kindness, but, in reality, to attract 
attention to yourself, you will indiscriminately press 
a pup or an infant to your breast, soon to cast away 
pup or infant to become self-supporting in the alley. 
I am also afraid, that, if you do not possess the feelings 
of kindness toward those of your own country and 
your own house, you cannot swell my tears and join me 
in sorrow for the people of Mexico. I am still further 
afraid that you yourself will be a bad example and an 
element for evil in your own country. 

I first came in contact with the poverty of Mexican 



274 MEXICO, 



life in New Mexico about six years ago, while driv- 
ing over the country a long distance from railroad 
communication; and, coming to a ranch-house on 
the Pecos river, where the surroundings seemed some- 
what pretentious, and where the occupants were doubt- 
less lord of all they surveyed as a range for their stock, 
I stopped for dinner, which the good woman of the 
place kindly consented to prepare; but, after waiting 
more than two hours for it, I was at length invited to 
sit down to boiled beans, black coffee, and sad biscuits. 

I remembered what a farmer, in poor circumstances, 
once said to me, by way of extenuation of his apology 
for the meal in which he had invited me to join him 
and his family, that 1 ought to be able to stand for 
one meal what they had to eat all the time, and I, 
therefore, ate with a rehsh and heartily, not forgetting 
to pay a good, round price for the accommodation. 

But this was luxury compared with what one will 
encounter in Old Mexico, where I have seen houses 
bare of every utensil, of -all articles of furniture and 
clothing, a pot hanging from a tripod outside, being 
the only thing of art to distinguish the place as the 
habitation of the anthropoid; and I thought, what 
a beginning here for my favorite study. Anthropology! 

This statement is too short and bare to impress 
you with the full force of the situation; and I must 
say I found in these houses no stove, no pots, pans, 
or dishes, no tables, no chairs, no beds, no carpets, 
no pictures, except of Christ, the Virgin, and the 
saints, sometimes stuck in the space between rocks, for 
these walls are often composed only of rough, surface- 
worn rocks or stones, laid up more like lattice-work 
than a wall, without mortar, a door without a closure, 



SOCIAL. 275 



more properly designated a hole, no window, poles 
supporting brush, grass or ground for a roof; the 
inhabitants sitting on the ground in the daytime, and 
lying on it at night, clad always in a blanket; the 
location on a bed of lava or among projecting rocks, 
and the picture is complete. 

Man has taken everything from these people, and 
why should not Christ hasten his second coming, and 
remove the pictures from the wall, thus depriving 
them even of hope, that in the madness of despair 
they might rush again into being. 

Man in a state of nature, without God or govern- 
ment, has never been thus poor, thus unfortunate, 
thus oppressed, but only where the Church has sub- 
stituted itself for God, and individual rapacity has 
taken the place of government. 

From this doleful, this most doleful of all pictures 
of human misery, you are invited to follow me to the 
castle of Chapultepec, with its military academy, its 
West Point, in the rear, overlooking the valley and 
City of Mexico, where power, magnificence and wealth 
are enthroned. 

Those who have lived very long in the world and 
do not yet know what happens to a pompous dynasty 
maintained on the misery of the people may yet learn 
by reading the history of Egypt, of Persia, of Rome, 
of France, and those ignorant of all these countries 
have within them no basis for reflection on the affairs 
and future of Mexico; but they may yet read, may 
yet think, may yet act. 

The future of Mexico, already, perhaps, sufficiently 
indicated, needs, in closing, a few words, to make the 
work complete. 



276 MEXICO. 



During the personal government, I cannot say ad- 
ministration, and I would be discourteous to say reign, 
or rule, even, of President Diaz, which I hope may be 
yet long to accustom the people to peace, the country 
will enjoy tranquillity, as a government, and pros- 
perity in its enterprises, at the expense, not to the 
profit or advancement, of the people, which status 
is and will be maintained by public compliance, but 
not consent to this tenure for life, with which the 
people would neither comply nor consent, if heredi- 
tary, so that we here plainly see the operation of that 
law of society and government, which makes a presi- 
dent more potent than a king, that law as broad as 
the human race, pleased with the first attempt, an- 
noyed by the second, disgusted with the third, out- 
raged by the fourth, — all of which is founded on the 
constitution of man, from which starting-point his 
acts might be determined in advance. 

If President Diaz should resign, as I hope he will 
not, great confusion would occur, with unknown re- 
sult ; and, if he hold control of the government through 
a declining and helpless old age, unrest will arise, but 
the very power of his name will still govern. 

When he dies, we have now come to the common 
point of all things human: his government will die 
with him, because he is the government, and aside 
from him non est. 

All Europe, and France in particular, trembled at 
the terrible roar of Louis XIV, "I am the State!" 
but this was only the groaning of a ghost, then in- 
habiting the armor "of his glorious ancestors, whose 
great heritage he was squandering and bringing to 
impotence and disgrace. Europe, at that time, was 



SOCIAL. 277 



afraid of ghosts; and the sepulchral sounds from this 
deserted house saved the monarchy, which would have 
been lost on the field. 

The case of President Diaz is different and similar: 
different, in that his power is potent and personal, 
created, maintained, and perpetuated by himself, 
without obhgation to ancestry or heredity; similar, in 
the triumph of individual will: "The king willeth," 
"The president desires." 

Dissolution follows death so closely as to be synony- 
mous. I am still following the course of nature, nature 
in the affairs of men as in their individual lives. Death 
and dissolution of President Diaz; death and disso- 
lution of his government. In the same instant, we 
need not wait for time, will occur, not a resurrection, 
but the hvehest spirit of antagonism to all that just 
now died, now only an apparition. 

The general scramble for place will beget factions; 
factions, parties; parties, rebellions; rebellions, revo- 
lutions; revolutions, anarchy; anarchy, governments; 
governments, debts; debts, discredit; discredit, re- 
pudiation; repudiation, intervention: and thus his- 
tory repeats itself. 

I am now done, and here we part company. 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Absolutism 148 

Abyssinia 200 

Adam 53 

iEsop 161 

Aguas Calientes, 62, 225, 229 

Alexandria 229 

Alfalfa 48, 65 

Altitude and latitude 

compared 41 

American Revolution, 51, 167 
Amusements, games, 

sports.. 239 

Anthropology 39, 98, 207 

Appalachian range 13 

Aqueducts 51 

Arts 58 

Arabia 21, 54 

Archimedes 82 

Aristotle 142, 195 

Aristocracies 149 

Army, The 161 

Asia Minor 51, 202, 229 

Assessed value of prop- 
erty of Mexico 26 

Athens 229 

Australia 197 

Automobiles 66 

Aztecs 31, 163 

Bad-order cars 71 

Bad railroad tracks 73 



Page. 

Babylon 229 

Baking 271 

Banks of Newfoundland, 14 

Barrenness of Mexico. . . 46 

Behring Strait 196 

Bible quoted 102 to 108 

Bishop, The 131 

Blackstone 167 

Blanket- weaving 56 

Bolivar 151 

Boundaries of Mexico 9 

Bozzaris 151 

Building material 16 

Buildings, plan of *. 28 

Bull-fight 242 

Burial of dead 238 

Burro-riding 66 

Burro trains 68 

Csesar 163 

Canada 40 

Canals 51 

Cape of Good Hope 198 

Car famine 70 

Carribean Sea 198 

Caucasians 204 

Cause of rebeUions and 

uprisings 191 

Celebration of mass, 125, 129 

Celebration of natal day, 153 

Celts 51 



[279] 



280 



INDEX. 



Centralization of federal 

authority • • • • 157 

Chase, Salmon P 159 

Chapultepec, 29, 30, 217, 275 

Chichemecs 31 

China 232 

Christian religion 109 

Churches 28 

Church construction 116 

Cities, plan of 27 

CityofMexico, 17, 27, 28, 
30, 32, 52, 65, 79, 136, 

163, 175, 216 229 

Civilization 212 

Claims for personal dam- 
ages 82 

Claims for stock killed. . . 84 
Claims for loss and dam- 
age to freight 84 

Colorado 40 

Colima 17 

Columbus 209 

Coins 139 

Coke 167 

Commercial 64 

Confiscation of church 

property 115, 130 

Confucius 170 

Conquest of Mexico 

42, 51, 206 

Conduct of schools 228 

Constantine the Great . . . 136 
Constitution of Mexico. . . 171 
Constitution of Oklaho- 
ma 173 

Constitution of the U. S., 172 

Cortez 208 

Cotton 50 

Crime 231 



Cromwell, Oliver 163 

Cromwell, Richard 163 

Democracies 149 

Depression of 1889-1897, 75 

Descriptive 9 

Deserted Village, The. . . 59 

Despotisms 149 

Destruction of industries, 

arts and literature 110 

Diaz, 136, 137, 144, 146, 

147, 150, 151, 152, 155, 

156, 159, 163, 174, 175, 

210 277 

Disco, island of 45 

Distribution of human 

race 196 

Divorces 236 

Doctors in Mexico 250 

Domestic animals 55 

Dominion of the church, 112 

Drawn work 225 

Dress of the people 56 

Education. 226 

Egypt, 199, 200, 201, 229, 275 

Egyptian Isis 170 

Election of President in 

Mexico 174 

Election of President in 

the United States 175 

Emigration ... 46, 50, 58, 68 

Esquimaux 195 

Estados Unidos 139 

Ethiopia 201 

Europe 51, 207 

Fable of a fox 142 

Fable, mythological 17 

Farming, conditions pre- 
cedent 62 

Fates 57, 131, 209 



INDEX. 



281 



Food production 44 

Formation of mountains, 10 

France 163 

Freight rates 80 

Freight service 70 

French revolution Ill 

Fruits 49 

Future of Mexico 

44, 155, 275 

Gambling 30 

Gardens 28 

Gateways 64 

General denial 74 

General features of Mex- 
ico 10 

Going to church 125 

Gold 25 

Goldsmith 59 

Gonzales, Manuel 210 

Government of Mexico. . . 14 

Grains 46 

Grasses 47 

Great Basin 11 

Greece, 110, 226, 227, 229 

Geocentric theory 194 

Guadalajara 27, 230, 237 

Guadalupe 118 

Guizot 227 

Gulf of Mexico 40, 198 

Gulf Stream 14 

Harvest 63 

Haciendas 42, 61, 191 

Hamilton, Alexander 159 

Hebrews 201 

Henry IV. of France .... 135 

Henry VIII 136 

Herodotus 137, 201 

Himalayas 202 

Homer 21, 53 



Houses, material for 

building 58 

Human sacrifice 99 

Humboldt 36 

Imprisonments 85 

Increase of rain 22 

Industrial 42 

Intemperance 237 

Interstate Commerce 

Commission 73, 81 

Introductory 7 

Iron 25 

Irrigation 51 

Irving, Washington 164 

Italy 229 

Iztaccihuatl 17 

Japanese 69, 117 

Juarez 174, 210 

Kane, Dr 45 

Kentucky 57 

Language and literature, 217 

La Viga 52 

Law books 165 

Laws and lawyers 104 

Laws of Kansas 67 

Lawsuits 169 

Le Mantuer 159 

London 32 

Louis XIV 30, 40, 276 

Lybia 21 

Lycurgus 226 

Machine government. ... 143 

Macedonian campaigns . . 110 

Maguey 49 

Manitoba 63 

Manufacture of clothing, 56 

Marriages 234 

MaximUian 174, 210 

Mechanical skill 225 



282 



INDEX. 



Medieval Europe ... 113, 189 

Mexican Congress 145 

Mexico warned 30, 60 

Middle ages 153, 161 

Military despotism. .152, 162 
Millionaires and paupers, 160 

Minerals 15, 23 

Mismanagement of rail- 
roads 71 

Mississippi valley 14 

Montezuma 33, 217 

Moors 29 

Mountains, products of . . 15 

Mount Ararat 40 

Miiller, Max 202 

Municipal corruption .... 142 

Municipal ownership 96 

Museum in City of Mex- 
ico 213 

Museum on La Viga 52 

Napoleon . , 163 

Natural religion 108 

New World 53 

New York 32 

Oak, The 40 

Occident, The 271 

Old World 53 

Oligarchies 149 

Olympian deities 110 

Orient, The 271 

Origin of designs 199 

Origin of races 195 

Other gods 117 

Palmyra 54 

Panindicuaro, trip to 257 

Paintings 225 

Paris 32 

Penjamo 133 

Peonage 42 

Persian invasion 110 



Personal customs 136 

Personal debasement .... 134 
Peru, 195, 196, 197, 199, 207 

Pike's Peak 36 

Plowing 62 

Poetic fancy 19 

Police, The 163 

Political 138 

Political policy 135 

Politeness 261 

Polynesia 196 

Popocatapetl 17, 33 

Population of Mexico. . . . 205 
Poverty in Mexico, 60, 61, 273 
Priests, 108, 109, 129, 

130, 132, 133, 198 
Prescott, 19, 21, 54, 99 to 102 
Primitive mode of life . . 42 

Products of Mexico 44 

Proposed government for 

the United States 187 

Protestant congregations, 117 

Public health 25 

Pulque 49 

Puruandiro 231 

Races, Mexican 203 

Railroad employes 69 

Railroad influence 141 

Railroads in Mexico 42 

Railroad transportation.. 131 

Real estate agents 46 

Relative charges of rail- 
roads 79 

Relative cost of railroads, 78 
Relative service of rail- 
roads 79 

Relative importance of 

cities 32 

Religious 98 

Religious gatherings 131 



INDEX. 



283 



Renaissance 109, 111 

Republica Mexican a 139 

Rocky Mountain district, 27 
Rome, 110, 168, 189, 229, 275 

Rurales 161, 162, 232 

Russia 237 

Sacrifices 99, 109 

Scarcity of fuel 34 

Sciences, five 193 

Sculpture 226 

Separation of church and 

State Ill, 114 

Settlers on arid lands 23 

Shrine of Mexico 118 

Sight-seeing 30 

Sister Republic of Mex- 
ico 196 

Social 193 

Social scenes 194 

Socrates 165 

Solon 226, 227 

Sombrero 223 

Spaniards, 31, 33, 42, 204, 

205, 207, 211, 272 

St. Lawrence, The 14 

Stage lines 65 

Start, The 7 

State Boards R. R. Com- 
missioners 77 

States of our lives, five . . 193 

Stamp tax 159 

States of Mexico 156 

States of the U. S 156 

Steamers 66 

Street-car systems 30 

Sugarcane 55 

Supposed royal family. . . 214 

Tadmor 54 

Tampico 65 

Tariflf of Mexico 160 



Tariff of the U. S 160 

Tejada, Lerdo de 210 

Tennessee 57 

Tezcuco 33, 51 

Thebes 229 

Thieves' Market 223 

Threshing 62 

Tierra caliente 19, 55 

Tocqueville, M. de 138 

Toltecs 31 

Toumefort 40 

Transcendentalism 2 13 

Transportation 64 

Trip on canal 52 

Troy 110 

United States and Mex- 
ico compared 26 

Valley of the Colorado. . . 11 
VaUey of the Columbia. . 11 

Valparaiso 229 

Vegetables 48 

Vera Cruz 65, 69, 152 

View of City and Valley 

of Mexico 30 

Volcanoes 17 

Volney 227 

Washington 51, 151 

Wages in Mexico 60 

Walking 66 

Water, scarcity of 17 

Wealth of Mexico 60 

What is religion? 128 

White tenantry in the 

United States 43 

Why Spain lost domin- 
ion in the New 

World 208 

WiUows 40 

Winnipeg 63 

Zacatecas, 34, 54, 68, 152, 229 



OEG 23 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




